Brighton & Hove Albion welcome Crystal Palace to the AMEX Stadium in Friday Night Football.
At least one point would see Brighton climb above Wolves into eighth, whereas Palace can go tenth with a win.
Team News
Lewis Dunk won’t be available for Brighton as he nears a return from a knee injury with manager – Graham Potter only prepared to risk him once he is declared match fit.
Jeremy Sarmiento (thigh), Yves Bissouma (international duty) and Enock Mwepu are ruled out.
Palace could welcome Vicente Guaita back from a finger injury which kept him out of last weekend’s FA Cup win at Millwall.
James McArthur (hamstring) and James Tomkins (unspecified) are ruled out
Cheikhou Kouyate, Jordan Ayew and Wilfried Zaha are all away on international duty at Africa Cup of Nations.
Stat Attack
- Brighton are winless in their last five meetings against Crystal Palace (D3, L2), with all three draws finishing 1-1.
- Palace have won two of four previous Premier League visits to Brighton (W2, D1, L1).
- Brighton have conceded first in their last four meetings against Palace.
- All seven of Neal Maupay’s league goals for Brighton this season were scored on his right foot.
- Palace have conceded first in each of their last four away games in all competitions (W1, L3), during which they failed to net in each of their last three away league matches.
Prediction
There certainly isn’t much to separate these two teams beyond opposite ends of M23 because both Brighton and Crystal Palace had to come from behind at West Brom and Millwall respectively last weekend in the FA Cup.
Brighton also can take heart from their last league outing because they just outclassed Everton in the attack from first whistle, especially in aggressive runs and passing amidst some sloppy defending at times.
Palace however can’t afford another sluggish start in their third match of 2022 after defensively collapsing against West Ham in their last league game after conceding first, yet they learned from that slump because they showed improvement at Millwall once behind.
This game should therefore be super competitive but if Brighton play like they did in their last league game and Palace don’t get into the fight early on, there could well be just one winner.
Prediction: Brighton 2-1 Crystal Palace
Result: Brighton 1-1 Crystal Palace