Brighton & Hove Albion look to continue their bright start to the season against West Ham at the AMEX Stadium.
Victory will see Brighton stay top of the table for at least 21 hours, whilst West Ham can go top with a win if Arsenal, Brentford and Tottenham all lose elsewhere earlier in the day.
Team News
Julio Enciso is ruled out for Brighton with a serious knee injury which will keep him sidelined indefinitely.
Jakub Moder (knee) remains absent.
West Ham will be without Nayef Aguerd after he was red carded during their home win against Chelsea last weekend.
When is Kick-Off?
Brighton welcome West Ham to Amex Stadium in a 5:30pm BST kick-off on Saturday 26 August, live on Sky Sports in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Brighton are unbeaten in 12 previous Premier League meetings against West Ham (W6, D6).
- West Ham have claimed just two points from six previous Premier League visits to Brighton (D2, L4).
- Ex Brighton player, Alexis Mac Allister scored in both meetings against West Ham last season (W2), during which the Seagulls kept clean sheets on both occasions.
- Three of Brighton’s eight goals this season have been scored by Solly March (W2).
- Lucas Paqueta has been booked in both of West Ham’s two matches this season.
Prediction
Sat top of the table coming into this weekend, Brighton will be confident coming into this game given their unbeaten form against West Ham, which is quite incredible for a team that came up six years ago and are now set to commence their first European adventure next month.
Roberto De Zerbi’s Seagulls though need to solidify their defence more because despite playing ruthless attacking football up front, I felt that they rode their luck defensively at times in their opening two games which told with one conceded goal in both matches.
West Ham meanwhile were fantastic in how they attacked Chelsea with strong intensity and energetic movement, which eventually forced errors within the Blues’ defence which they executed with brilliant clinical finishing.
David Moyes’ Hammers however do have a hoodoo record against Brighton but if they play like they did last weekend, I do fancy them to snatch something if able to contain Brighton’s dangerous in-form attack.
Prediction: Brighton 1-1 West Ham