An in-depth have a look at Brighton forward of this weekend’s Premier League conflict.
We face the south coast aspect at 14:00 (UK) on Sunday 31 August in our last recreation earlier than the primary worldwide break of the season.
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With a win and a loss to date, Pep Guardiola might be eager for the three factors at a floor we’ve traditionally loved visiting.
With the assistance of Opta knowledge, we’ve analysed the risk the Seagulls pose.
Latest kind
Brighton final season got here inside one level of matching their document Premier League haul, accumulating 61 factors from 38 video games.
Sadly for them, it wasn’t fairly worthy of a European place like their 62 factors in 2022/23 turned out to be.
They had been the league’s eighth finest house aspect final season, choosing up 32 factors, whereas they excelled away from the AMEX compared to the remainder of the league. Their 29 factors on the street was the fifth finest within the division.
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The brand new time period hasn’t began completely, with a 1-1 draw in opposition to Fulham on the opening weekend adopted by a 2-0 loss at Everton because the Toffees opened their model new stadium.
Most well-liked formation
Brighton had been some of the fluid sides within the Premier League final season, with Opta stating they used six completely different formations all through 2024/25.
4-2-3-1 was the commonest, with former England man Danny Welbeck main the road and a different supporting solid behind him.
They’ve continued that approach to date on this time period, with the likes of Kaoru Mitoma and Yankuba Minteh stretching the play on the wings and Carlos Baleba and Yasin Ayari protecting huge quantities of floor in central midfield.
Boss Fabian Hurzeler definitely likes to combine issues up. In addition to chopping and altering formations, solely relegated Southampton used extra gamers than Brighton final season, with 32 males making the sector over the 12 months.
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Switch exercise
As with most summers since their promotion in 2017, Brighton have misplaced one in every of their star males because the finish of final time period.
Joao Pedro went to Chelsea, the place he performed a key function in serving to them to win the FIFA Membership World Cup.
Acquainted faces Simon Adingra and Pervis Estupinan have additionally gone, leaving for Sunderland and AC Milan respectively.
As for incomings, the Seagulls have caught with their tried and trusted sample of concentrating on younger expertise from abroad.
The most important outlay got here on teenage striker Charalampos Kostoulas from Olympiacos.
Maybe probably the most recognisable identify is Maxim De Cuyper, the full-back from Membership Brugge, who has made his mark on the worldwide stage with Belgium within the final 12 months.
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21-year-old defender Diego Coppola got here from Hellas Verona whereas 19-year-old winger Tom Watson joined from Sunderland however it stays to be seen how relied upon they are going to be of their first season.
Supervisor
Fabian Hurzeler attracted a number of headlines in his first season in England as a consequence of his age.
The German is barely 32 and due to this fact youthful than a number of members of his squad.
Nonetheless, he arrived having led St Pauli to promotion to the Bundesliga and hit the bottom operating, successful the August Supervisor of the Month award within the Premier League final 12 months.
Pep Guardiola loved watching his counterpart’s work final season, stating in a press convention that: “He’s doing an unimaginable job. They play with nice character and rhythm.”
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Final season’s conferences between the edges had been the primary video games between Hurzeler and Guardiola, with Brighton successful on the AMEX earlier than incomes a attract Manchester.
With a 42.1% win share and a median of 1.6 factors per match, Hurzeler’s first 12 months in England may have bore fruit in European qualification in different seasons.
Physio room
Central defender Adam Webster is a vital miss for Brighton having performed 158 occasions within the final six seasons. He appears to be like prone to miss a number of the marketing campaign with a knee damage.
Wingers Solly March and Tom Watson are each on their approach again to full health so could make this recreation.
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As all the time, we received’t know for positive till the groups are introduced 75 minutes earlier than kick-off!
How they rating their targets
Goalscoring may be very a lot a workforce recreation for Brighton, with Welbeck, Pedro and Mitoma all getting 10 every final season.
That was solely sufficient to go away them twenty first when it comes to the division’s high scorers however no aspect had greater than the ten completely different scorers Brighton had.
Actually, 12 of Brighton’s 13 Premier League targets in opposition to us have come from completely different scorers.
Joao Pedro was their main help contributor in 2024/25 with six, however once more this was solely the twenty seventh finest within the division.
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5 gamers supplied 4 assists every with an additional 4 establishing team-mates at some stage.
What turns into clear when what number of touches Brighton gamers had within the opposition field final season, is that their wingers are essential when it comes to getting the workforce up the pitch.
Fairly than or not it’s the strikers who had the ball probably the most in probably the most harmful areas, Mitoma (169) and Minteh (165) had been Brighton’s leaders in that metric.
As for this season, Brighton could have solely scored as soon as to date however their xG of three.91 is the fourth finest within the Premier League and suggests they’re creating possibilities they’ll quickly profit from.
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How they defend
Lewis Dunk has been Brighton’s stalwart on the again since their promotion and stays so to today, enjoying 268 occasions.
The 33-year-old is commonly a stunning identify on the high of the Premier League’s passing charts and leads the best way after two video games with 191 passes this season.
2022/23 and 2023/24 noticed the defender compete instantly with Rodri for many passes throughout the division.
That illustrates how Brighton choose to defend with the ball, quite than dropping deep and permitting their opponents to have possession.
That has continued this season as they rank second for profitable passes in their very own half of the pitch with 503 however are fifteenth for accomplished passes within the opposition half (282).
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The highest two combos for passes between gamers in 2025/26 are Brighton’s centre-backs Dunk and Jan Paul van Hecke (119) and Dunk and goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen (65).
Nonetheless, they are often inclined to conceding after they surrender possession – with solely six sides final season letting in additional than their 59 conceded.
Goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen’s save share of 61.1% final season was the twenty fourth finest out of 26 goalkeepers to play at the least 10 video games.
Metropolis have received 5 of our eight journeys to Brighton since their promotion in 2017, scoring 23 targets.
That’s included some massive scorelines, having racked up 4 targets on three events and one 5-0 win in 2020.
Nonetheless, our final go to got here throughout a troublesome run final November and noticed us go right down to a 2-1 defeat regardless of taking the lead by way of Erling Haaland.