This weekend’s Premier League action kicks off with Friday Night Football as Brighton and Hove Albion host Manchester United at the Amex.
Victory here will see Manchester United seal the runner up spot and Champions League Football, whilst Brighton will definitely be safe if they pick up the win.
Team news
Brighton have an unchanged squad available for this weekend.
Midfielder, Davy Propper is available after serving a three match ban following his sending off against Huddersfield last month.
Steve Sidwell (ankle) and Isaiah Brown (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) are Brighton’s only absentees.
Manchester United will be without Romelu Lukaku after the Belgian striker picked up a foot injury during Sunday’s win over Arsenal.
Phil Jones could feature here after recovering from a knock but goalkeeper, Sergio Romero is still out with a knee injury.
Form
Brighton are on a six match winless league run, losing and drawing three. Two of those draws came at home by a 1-1 scoreline, whilst the other came last weekend away at Burnley.
The Seagulls have failed to score in just two of last ten league games, both coming either side of last month’s international break in 2-0 defeats.
Manchester United are flying with just one defeat in last eight league games, winning two of their last three away games by a 3-2 score-line.
Chris Smalling has been on fire away from Old Trafford, scoring in United’s last three away games.
Stat Attack
- Brighton are winless in last eight meetings with Manchester United across all competitions (D3 L5).
- Man Utd have won three of last four meetings by a 1-0 result and they all came at Old Trafford.
- In just five league meetings, Brighton has won just once and that came in their last meeting at Brighton in November 1982.
- Brighton have the third worst win total this season in Premier League, taking just eight victories. Only the clubs currently in bottom three have a worst record.
- Between them, Brighton and Manchester United have made 1064 tackles this season.
- Brighton’s Matt Ryan has made 111 saves this season, one more than United’s David de Gea’s 100.
- Glenn Murray has missed nine big chances, triple the next best number of missed chances by a Brighton players
Where can game be won or lost?
| Per Game Average | Brighton & Hove Albion (home) | Manchester United (away) |
| Corners | 4.72 | 5.35 |
| Fouls | 10.72 | 10.88 |
| Shots | 11.44 | 12.12 |
| Shots on Target | 3.72 | 4.65 |
| Goals | 1.28 | 1.76 |
| Yellow Cards | 1.94 | 2 |
| Red Cards | 1 | 1 |
| Goals per First Half % | 34.8 | 40 |
| Goals per Second Half % | 65.2 | 60 |
This match could very well be tighter than many expect it to be.
Although Manchester United have the edge all over the pitch, they fail to average a clear one number more than Brighton. That is bound to give the Seagulls hope of producing a surprise here if they are clinical enough.
Discipline wise, they are evenly matched with just 0-04 fouls per match between them and 0.06 in yellow cards.
The only defining difference that could decide the match is United’s better goal average in first half, although both teams score more goals after half time.
Prediction
It’s tough to predict a winner here and if Brighton can reproduce the quality from their last home game against Tottenham Hotspur, they might get something here.
Prediction: Brighton & Hove Albion 1-1 Manchester United:
Jake predicts: Brighton & Hove Albion 0-2 Manchester United
Result: Brighton & Hove Albion 1-0 Manchester United
Prediction Wars
Here at Sport Grill, me and Middlesbrough FC writer, Jake Self are going head to head predicting this season’s Premier League games.
This is how things stand after the previous round of games along with the rules.
Correct score – 3 points
Correct result – 1 point
Incorrect result – 0 points
| Name | Points |
| James Gregory | 235 |
| Jake Self | 224 |