Match Preview
Brighton and Hove Albion vrs Fulham
Premier League Match Day 01 25_26 at American Express Stadium
Saturday 16th August 2025, KO: 15:00
Referee:
Samuel Barrott (West Riding)
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Fulham head to the Amex Stadium for their opening fixture of the 2025-26 Premier League season on Saturday afternoon to face Brighton.
Fulham are preparing for their fourth consecutive season in the top flight and will endeavour to climb back into the top half of the table after finishing 11th last season with 54 points, their highest Premier League tally.
The Cottagers have had plenty to smile about over pre-season as they won all three of their friendly fixtures against Nottingham Forest, Al-Ittihad and Eintracht Frankfurt, beating the latter 1-0 on home soil last weekend courtesy of a delightful free kick from Raul Jimenez.
However, Marco Silva has endured a frustrating and “passive” summer transfer window, with the £500,000 arrival of backup goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte representing the club’s only new arrival.
Silva has insisted that he is “very short on numbers” and has encouraged the club to reinforce before the September 1 deadline.
Fulham have won their opening league match in just one of the last eight seasons (D3 L4) - a 1-0 win at Everton in 2023-24 - and Silva believes that both his side and Brighton “are going to be anxious” ahead of this weekend’s opener.
Against Brighton, Fulham have won 50% of their 10 Premier League games (W5 D4 L1) - only against Leicester City (58%) and Bolton Wanderers (55%) do they have a higher win rate against teams that they have faced at least 10 times - but have only won one of their last seven away league visits to the Seagulls (D3 L3), beating them 1-0 in February 2023.
The Seagulls beat the Cottagers 2-1 in their most recent meeting in March, ending a nine-game winless run against the West Londoners in the Premier League (D4 L5).
Brighton were one of the biggest spenders in Europe last summer, forking out over £200m on new players, but the Premier League’s youngest-ever manager Fabian Hurzeler was unable to steer the club back into European competition and had to settle for a respectable eighth-placed finish.
This summer, the Seagulls have spent in excess of £60m on six new signings, including Greek wonderkid Charalampos Kostoulas, but they have lost star striker Joao Pedro to Chelsea and left-back Pervis Estupinan to AC Milan, while key midfielder Carlos Baleba continues to be linked with a big-money switch to Manchester United.
Hurzeler is confident that Brighton “can compete with the big teams” this season and the German has overseen a positive pre-season this summer, with the Seagulls winning six and drawing one of their seven friendly fixtures, including 2-0 and 2-1 home victories in separate games against Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg last weekend.
Brighton head into Saturday’s contest with Fulham having won their opening top-flight match in each of the last four seasons - the Seagulls’ longest run in their league history and also the longest current run of any Premier League team.
Hurzeler and co will back themselves to find the net against the Cottagers, as they have scored more Premier League goals (31) than any other team since suffering a humbling 7-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest in February, while only Manchester City (30) and Aston Villa (29) have accumulated up more PL points than Brighton in that time (27 - W8 D3 L3).
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Brighton beat Fulham 2-1 in March, ending a nine-game winless run against the Cottagers in the Premier League (D4 L5).
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Fulham have won just one of their last seven away league games against Brighton (D3 L3), beating them 1-0 in February 2023.
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Fulham have won 50% of their 10 Premier League games against Brighton (W5 D4 L1) – of sides they’ve faced 10+ times in the competition, only against Leicester (58%) and Bolton (55%) do they have a higher win rate.
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Fulham have won their opening league match in just one of the last eight campaigns (D3 L4), winning 1-0 at Everton in 2023-24.
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None of Fulham’s last 18 Premier League games have been drawn (W8 L10). It’s their longest run without a draw in the top-flight since a run of 23 between December 2018 and October 2020 (W5 L18).
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Fulham have conceded 999 goals in 684 Premier League games. They would be the 13th different side to concede 1000 in the competition, with only Leicester (679) doing so in fewer than 700 games previously.
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Only against West Ham (8) has Fulham’s Alex Iwobi been involved in more Premier League goals than he has against Brighton (6), with the Seagulls the only side he’s both scored (3) and assisted (3) 3+ goals against.
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Brighton have won their opening league match in each of the last four seasons. It’s the Seagulls’ longest such run in their league history, and the longest current run of any Premier League side.
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Since the matchday immediately following Brighton’s 7-0 loss to Nottingham Forest in February, the Seagulls have scored more Premier League goals than any other side (31), while only Manchester City (30) and Aston Villa (29) have picked up more points than Brighton in that time (27 – W8 D3 L3).
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Should he feature in this game, it will be Brighton veteran James Milner’s 17th appearance on MD1 in the Premier League, with only Frank Lampard (18) making more such appearances.
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Source Oliver Thomas at SportsMole/BBCSports