Analysing Brighton ahead of Sunday’s Premier League clash | OneFootball

An in-depth look at Brighton ahead of this weekend’s Premier League clash.

We face the south coast side at 14:00 (UK) on Sunday 31 August in our final game before the first international break of the season.

With a win and a loss so far, Pep Guardiola will be keen for the three points at a ground we’ve historically enjoyed visiting.

With the help of Opta data, we’ve analysed the threat the Seagulls pose.

Recent form

Brighton last season came within one point of matching their record Premier League haul, collecting 61 points from 38 games.

Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t quite worthy of a European place like their 62 points in 2022/23 turned out to be.

They were the league’s eighth best home side last season, picking up 32 points, while they excelled away from the AMEX in comparison to the rest of the league. Their 29 points on the road was the fifth best in the division.

The new term hasn’t started perfectly, with a 1-1 draw against Fulham on the opening weekend followed by a 2-0 loss at Everton as the Toffees opened their brand new stadium.

Preferred formation

Brighton were one of the most fluid sides in the Premier League last season, with Opta stating they used six different formations throughout 2024/25.

4-2-3-1 was the most common, with former England man Danny Welbeck leading the line and a varied supporting cast behind him.

They’ve continued that way so far in this term, with the likes of Kaoru Mitoma and Yankuba Minteh stretching the play on the wings and Carlos Baleba and Yasin Ayari covering vast amounts of ground in central midfield.

Boss Fabian Hurzeler certainly likes to mix things up. As well as chopping and changing formations, only relegated Southampton used more players than Brighton last season, with 32 men making the field over the year.

Transfer activity

As with most summers since their promotion in 2017, Brighton have lost one of their star men since the end of last term.

Joao Pedro went to Chelsea, where he played a key role in helping them to win the FIFA Club World Cup.

Familiar faces Simon Adingra and Pervis Estupinan have also gone, leaving for Sunderland and AC Milan respectively.

As for incomings, the Seagulls have stuck with their tried and trusted pattern of targeting young talent from overseas.

The biggest outlay came on teenage striker Charalampos Kostoulas from Olympiacos.

Perhaps the most recognisable name is Maxim De Cuyper, the full-back from Club Brugge, who has made his mark on the international stage with Belgium in the last 12 months.

21-year-old defender Diego Coppola came from Hellas Verona while 19-year-old winger Tom Watson joined from Sunderland but it remains to be seen how relied upon they will be in their first season.

Manager

Fabian Hurzeler attracted a lot of headlines in his first season in England due to his age.

The German is only 32 and therefore younger than several members of his squad.

However, he arrived having led St Pauli to promotion to the Bundesliga and hit the ground running, winning the August Manager of the Month award in the Premier League last year.

Pep Guardiola enjoyed watching his counterpart’s work last season, stating in a press conference that: “He’s doing an incredible job. They play with great personality and rhythm.”

Last season’s meetings between the sides were the first games between Hurzeler and Guardiola, with Brighton winning at the AMEX before earning a draw in Manchester.

With a 42.1% win percentage and an average of 1.6 points per match, Hurzeler’s first year in England could have bore fruit in European qualification in other seasons.

Physio room

Central defender Adam Webster is a crucial miss for Brighton having played 158 times in the last six seasons. He looks likely to miss a lot of the campaign with a knee injury.

Wingers Solly March and Tom Watson are both on their way back to full fitness so may make this game.

As always, we won’t know for sure until the teams are announced 75 minutes before kick-off!

How they score their goals

Goalscoring is very much a team game for Brighton, with Welbeck, Pedro and Mitoma all getting 10 each last season.

That was only enough to leave them 21st in terms of the division’s top scorers but no side had more than the 10 different scorers Brighton had.

In fact, 12 of Brighton’s 13 Premier League goals against us have come from different scorers.

Joao Pedro was their leading assist contributor in 2024/25 with six, but again this was only the 27th best in the division.

WATCH: City 2-2 Brighton: Brief highlights

Five players provided four assists each with a further four setting up team-mates at some stage.

What becomes clear when looking at how many touches Brighton players had in the opposition box last season, is that their wingers are crucial in terms of getting the team up the pitch.

Rather than it be the strikers who had the ball the most in the most dangerous areas, Mitoma (169) and Minteh (165) were Brighton’s leaders in that metric.

As for this season, Brighton may have only scored once so far but their xG of 3.91 is the fourth best in the Premier League and suggests they are creating chances they will soon benefit from.

How they defend

Lewis Dunk has been Brighton’s stalwart at the back since their promotion and remains so to this day, playing 268 times.

The 33-year-old is often a surprising name at the top of the Premier League’s passing charts and leads the way after two games with 191 passes this season.

2022/23 and 2023/24 saw the defender compete directly with Rodri for most passes across the division.

That illustrates how Brighton prefer to defend with the ball, rather than dropping deep and allowing their opponents to have possession.

That has continued this season as they rank second for successful passes in their own half of the pitch with 503 but are 15th for completed passes in the opposition half (282).

The top two combinations for passes between players in 2025/26 are Brighton’s centre-backs Dunk and Jan Paul van Hecke (119) and Dunk and goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen (65).

However, they can be susceptible to conceding when they give up possession – with only six sides last season letting in more than their 59 conceded.

Goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen’s save percentage of 61.1% last season was the 24th best out of 26 goalkeepers to play at least 10 games.

Head-to-head at the AMEX

City have won five of our eight trips to Brighton since their promotion in 2017, scoring 23 goals.

That’s included some big scorelines, having racked up four goals on three occasions and one 5-0 win in 2020.

However, our last visit came during a difficult run last November and saw us go down to a 2-1 defeat despite taking the lead through Erling Haaland.