Brighton & Hove Albion vs Fulham
There comes a time in the life of a club, particularly a Premier League one, where the law of averages suggests the art of buying low and selling high will come back to bite you.
No club in England has done that more successfully this past half decade than Brighton and Hove Albion.
Indeed, with Tony Bloom at the helm, the club’s track history is the envy of city traders.
Will this be the season it finally catches up with them or are the Seagulls in for some more big scalps and Premier League 2025 highlights?
Talking Points
This SBOTOP pundit holds his hands up and admits he got it wrong last term when he predicted the team would struggle after another year of losing their top playing and managerial talent and then appointing the youngest ever coach in the top flight.
What actually happened was that Brighton saw off then champions Manchester City, the team that went onto win the title, Liverpool, Man Utd (twice), Spurs (twice) and held Arsenal twice.
Fabian Hurzeler certainly made an impression once he was offered a three year contract after leading St Pauli to the Bundesliga 2 title and, now at the age of 32, will have a better eye of what to expect from the top flight of English football.
Just look at this list of some of the players (Moises Caicedo, Ben White, Marc Cucurella, Leandro Trossard and Alexis Mac Allister amongst them), managers (Graham Potter, Roberto De Zerbi) and key staff (Dan Ashworth) who have left the club in recent years and you have to wonder just how they have continued to maintain that level.
Even this summer, that trend has continued and they have seen João Pedro become the umpteenth player to depart the south coast for Chelsea but their fans remain upbeat, excited to see what the Greek youngsters Stefanos Tzimas and Charalampos Kostoulas can bring. Their £30 million outlay on the latter is the second most they’ve ever spent on a player.
Their supporters will also be hoping that a duo that have impressed me, Carlos Baleba and Yankuba Minteh, can stay put.
There are many similarities between the two clubs as they prepare to meet on the opening weekend.
Under Marco Silva, Fulham have certainly shown how effective they can be, not least when they gave Liverpool a torrid time en route to a 3-2 success last season.
Consistency has been hard to come by, though, which is understandable given they have struggled to keep hold of their top men in successive summers.
Put it this way, if they still had the likes of Aleksandar Mitrovic and Joao Palhinha in their ranks, they would probably have finished higher than 13th and 11th during the past two seasons.
Silva is entering the final year of his contract with Fulham and the Portuguese manager has been cryptic about his future at Craven Cottage.
Yet as long as he can retain the likes of marauding full-back Antonee Robinson, Rodrigo Muniz (a real threat when he has a consistent run of games), Harry Wilson, Ryan Sessegnon and Joachim Andersen in the ranks, not to mention what he hopes will be a more settled season from Emile Smith Rowe and the promise of talented youngster Joshua King, then he can be optimistic the club can continue to live comfortably in the mid echelons of English football’s top flight.
History
Fulham have the edge in this fixture with 27 victories compared to 23 Brighton successes. There have also been eight draws.
The Seagulls were due a win over the Cottagers as you had to go back 10 games to 2017 to the last time they beat them. That was until March when a Pedro penalty in the 98th minute won the day. Raul Jiminez had earlier put Fulham in front but the lead lasted just six minutes before Jan Paul Van Hecke levelled matters.
To give you an indication, until March that previous victory was in the Championship when two goals in a minute from Tomer Hemed (penalty) and Lewis Dunk won the day after Lucas Piazon had put Fulham ahead at Craven Cottage.
Since then, they had met nine times in the Premier League and Fulham had won five with a further four draws.
In west London last season, Fulham ran out 3-1 winners with an Alex Iwobi double and an own goal securing a 3-1 success and Baleba finding the net for the visitors.
It was in November 1928 in the former Division Three south that the two locked horns for the first time – a 2-0 Brighton success.
Betting Tip
The Premier League 2025 betting odds favour Brighton and so do I.
My view is the Seagulls waited 10 games to break their Fulham hoodoo and now two wins will come in fairly quick succession.
A home win is priced 1X2 @ 1.94 compared to Fulham who are on offer @ 3.45
With Asian Handicap odds, options include Brighton -0.75 @ 2.21 and Fulham +0.25 @ 2.29.
The Draw @ 3.39 has caught my eye, as has Total Goal 2-3 @ 2.03 and 4-6 @ 2.91. I am going to plump for a complete repeat of their meeting five months ago though.
A SHORT EXPLANATION ON HOW OUR (⭐) BETS ARE WORTH:
⭐⭐⭐= €20 (HIGHLY CONFIDENT)
⭐⭐= €10 (CONFIDENT)
⭐= €5 (SOMEWHAT CONFIDENT)
Disclaimer: Odds are correct at time of publish.
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