The Blues emerged triumphant 3-2 from a topsy-turvy affair with Nottingham Forest over the weekend, while the Seagulls were pegged back in a 1-1 draw with Newcastle United.
Brighton & Hove Albion possible starting lineup:
Verbruggen; Lamptey, Dunk, Webster, Igor; Gilmour, Gross; Adingra, Buonanotte, Fati; Welbeck
Continuing their alarming trend of failing to score more than once in a game – a sequence which now stands at a staggering 14 matches in all competitions – Brighton were briefly in the ascendancy at St James’ Park on Saturday, where Joel Veltman bundled in the opener before trudging off with an injury.
Funnily enough, Newcastle’s leveller on the stroke of half time came via an attack down Brighton’s right flank after the Dutchman was withdrawn for Tariq Lamptey, as Elliot Anderson‘s cutback was perfectly placed for Sean Longstaff to tap in the match’s second and final goal.
Neither side had anything to write home about in a second half bereft of star quality in the final third, and while Roberto De Zerbi‘s side managed to put a dent in Newcastle’s European aspirations in the North East, the 10th-placed Seagulls now have nothing significant left to play for.
Lying smack-bang in mid-table mediocrity, Brighton can only finish as high as eighth – and even that hinges on them taking maximum points off of Manchester United on the final day – but it has now been almost three months since the hosts notched multiple goals in a single 90-minute affair.
Whether De Zerbi will still be on the South Coast in 2024-25 is another question entirely – Bayern Munich are supposedly still pushing to bring him to Germany – but his immediate task at hand for Brighton’s penultimate game of the season is achieving back-to-back home wins in the league for the first time since September.
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