Match Preview: Brentford v Brighton and Hove Albion | OneFootball

Brentford welcome Brighton and Hove Albion to Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday (3pm kick-off GMT).

The Bees drew 1-1 with Arsenal in their last Premier League outing, while Fabian Hürzeler’s side lost 1-0 to Aston Villa.

Analysis, team news, match officials and more. Here's everything you need to know ahead of the game.

Pre-match Analysis

Stephen Gillett, Playmaker Stats: Brighton’s high intensity game poses considerable challenges

Brentford hit the 40-point mark after a high-octane draw against Premier League leaders Arsenal last Thursday, so let’s quickly fact-check their survival status ahead of Saturday’s home clash with Brighton.

Frequently cited as the mythical figure at which managers, players and fans can relax, that total has not actually been required to stay up since 2010/11 - with 36 points proving enough for survival in each of the past nine seasons.

In fact, Wolves (40 points; 2010/11), West Ham (42; 2002/03), Bolton (40; 1997/98) and Sunderland (40; 1996/97) are the only sides to have been relegated from the Premier League despite reaching the so-called magic number.

Keith Andrews will not count his chickens until the Bees are mathematically safe, but his side currently sit seventh with realistic ambitions of qualifying for Europe for the first time.

Brentford have made a fast start to 2026 - winning more away Premier League points (nine) than any other side - in stark contrast to Brighton.

Only Tottenham (four) have picked up fewer points than the Seagulls (six) so far this calendar year, and Fabian Hürzeler’s men arrive at the Gtech on a three-game losing streak during which they have failed to find the net.

No team has drawn more top flight games than Brighton’s 10 this term and, while Hurzeler’s side are capable of beating anyone on their day, they have frequently failed to click in attack and struggled for consistency.

Regardless of current form, the Seagulls have some of the Premier League’s most exciting young talents in their ranks - Carlos Baleba and Charolampos Kostoulas among them - and their high intensity game poses considerable challenges.

Top for pressed sequences in the Premier League this season (319), Brighton also rank first for passes-per-defensive-action - a metric measuring how many passes pressing sides allow before stepping in. On average, opponents manage just 10.2 passes in their own defensive third before the Seagulls intervene, highlighting the ferocity of Hürzeler’s press.

Bees coach Keith Andrews will hope to win his personal head-to-head with Hürzeler, the youngest permanent manager in Premier League history, and he will need to guard against his German counterpart’s flair for match-changing substitutions.

This season, Brighton (nine, level with Arsenal) lead the way for top-flight goals via substitutes, and the Seagulls have notably scored 20 of their 34 goals (59 per cent) after the hour mark - no team outscoring Hurzeler’s side in this timeframe.

Brighton’s data highlights a trend towards costly self-inflicted errors, though, and Brentford will hope to put the squeeze on opponents who have conceded the most goals from penalties (five) and own goals (four) this season.

In possession, Lewis Dunk and Jan Paul van Hecke set the tone for the Seagulls. Dunk leads the Premier League for successful passes in open play (1,824), while his Dutch sidekick leads the division for progressive carries, with 409.

Brighton’s central defensive duo both feature among the most-booked players in the Premier League, however, and Brentford - spearheaded by 17-goal Igor Thiago - will look to force them into awkward defensive moments where a mistimed challenge can carry real consequences.

Fresh from picking up January’s Premier League Player of the Month award, Brentford striker Thiago currently leads the top flight for goals from the penalty spot, with six.

Notably, Thiago’s one penalty miss this season came in the 2-1 defeat to Brighton at the Amex Stadium last November - and the big Brazilian, and the Bees, will no doubt be gunning to avenge that defeat.

Scout Report

Dan Long, Sky Sports: Seagulls struggling for goals in recent weeks

A week after Brighton beat Brentford in November, the Seagulls won away at Nottingham Forest and moved up to fifth in the Premier League.

“We are still not where we want to be, but it’s a process and we focus on that,” said head coach Fabian Hürzeler.

After missing out on a return to Europe by four points last season, his side had the early makings of another push. That optimism has since faded.

From six games in December, they took three points, two of which came from draws against West Ham, a team fighting to retain their Premier League status.

They did start 2026 with a win against Burnley and a 1-1 draw at Man City was sandwiched in between a 2-1 win over Manchester United in the FA Cup third round. But it’s now two points from the last five Premier League games and their miserable run of form has stretched to one win in 13.

Unsurprisingly, scoring goals has been an issue. They have scored six across their last seven, underperforming their xG by 1.9. Across the season as a whole, they have scored 34 goals from an xG of 38.9 and conceded 34 from an xG of 36.2.

In Opta Analyst’s expected Premier League table, they sit 10th on 37.3 points. In reality, they are 14th, with 31 points, six points behind where they were at the same stage of last season.

After the 1-0 defeat to rivals Crystal Palace on 8 February, Brighton were booed off.

“The only two options are to give up or to keep pushing, to keep working and that’s always the option I have chosen in my life so far,” the 32-year-old said afterwards.

“That’s why I’m sitting here because I never give up, because I keep fighting and that’s what I will keep pushing to do.”

Whether or not Brighton currently find themselves in a relegation battle is up for debate. There are 12 games to go, and the traditional 40-point milestone has lowered in recent years and the Seagulls are closing in on that anyway.

Opta Analyst’s predicted table currently has them set to finish 13th, with an 11-point cushion between themselves and the relegation zone.

That would represent Brighton’s lowest finish since 2020/21, which is not where they would have hoped to be at the start.

But progress is often not linear and sometimes in football you have to take the rough with the smooth, survive and go again next year.

In the Dugout

Fabian Hürzeler

Born in February 1993, during the time his Swiss father and German mother were working in the USA, Fabian Hürzeler started out as part of Bayern Munich's youth system.

He spent the best part of a decade with Die Roten, working his way up to play for Bayern Munich II, while also playing for the German national team with the Under-15s, U16s, U17s and U19s.

Hürzeler moved on in 2013, first to 1899 TSG Hoffenheim II, then to 1860 Munich II a year later, before dropping to the fifth tier of German football with Pipinsried, where he combined playing with the role of head coach, while also working as assistant manager of the Germany U18s and U20s.

His coaching credentials were clear from the start, as Pipinsreid won promotion from the Bayernliga Süd in his first season.

After four years, he left the club in the summer of 2020 and was appointed assistant at St Pauli. Two-and-a-half years later - aged just 29 - he became head coach after the departure of Timo Schultz, four months before he was granted his UEFA Pro Licence, and led the club to a fifth-place finish in the 2. Bundesliga in 2022/23.

Hürzeler's side flourished in 2023/24, though, and went unbeaten in their first 20 games of the season, on the way to pipping Holstein Kiel to the title by a single point to secure a return to the Bundesliga after 13 years away.

Just three months after signing a new contract at St Pauli in March 2024, Hürzeler took over from Roberto De Zerbi at Brighton, becoming the Premier League's youngest permanent manager in history at the age of 31.

Hürzeler turns 33 next week and remains the youngest manager in the entirety of the top four divisions of English football, being 27 days younger than Southampton’s Tonda Eckert.

The Gameplan

With Brian Owen, The Argus

Brian Owen, Brighton and Hove Albion reporter for The Argus, explains how the Seagulls are likely to be set up at the Gtech.

"It is loosely 4-2-3-1, but one of the problems Brighton have had this season is that they have not had two genuine wingers on the pitch at the same time very often, certainly since the end of September," he told brentfordfc.com.

"Ideally, they would have a fit and in-form Kaoru Mitoma and Yankuba Minteh as the wingers, but they have hardly played together at the same time, with a lot of that due to injury or not being fully fit.

"There are one or two concerns over Minteh against the ball as well. The no.9 and no.10 will interchange at times, with Danny Welbeck coming a little bit deeper if it is him."

Last starting XI v Liverpool in the FA Cup fourth round (4-3-3): Steele; Veltman, van Hecke, Dunk, Kadıoğlu; Groß, Baleba, Hinshelwood; Howell, Kostoulas, Gómez

Match Officials

Gillett set to referee first Brentford fixture this season

Referee: Jarred Gillett

Assistants: Steven Meredith and Richard West

Fourth official: Paul Tierney

VAR: Nick Hopton

Jarred Gillett will take charge of his first Brentford fixture of the season on Saturday.

The Bees suffered a 3-2 defeat to Fulham on his last visit to Gtech Community Stadium in May 2025.

So far this term, he has officiated 16 matches, producing 57 yellow cards and one red.

Memorable Meeting

Brentford 4 Brighton and Hove Albion 2 (Premier League, 19 April 2025)

Bryan Mbeumo scored twice as Brentford defeated Brighton 4-2 in a thoroughly entertaining game at Gtech Community Stadium.

The Cameroon international beat Bart Verbruggen with a right-footed strike early on before Danny Welbeck headed in late in the first half.

Mbeumo restored the Bees' lead with a sublime curling effort before teeing up Yoane Wissa to make it 3-1.

João Pedro was sent off for an off-the-ball incident involving Nathan Collins, but the 10-man visitors reduced the deficit through Kaoru Mitoma's 81st-minute effort.

Christian Nørgaard headed in to make sure of the points in stoppage-time following a free-kick from the right wing.