Brighton & Hove Albion, who have never given up that many goals in a Premier League (PL) game, will attempt to rebound from their historic 6-1 defeat to Aston Villa in their most recent PL game. The Seagulls appeared to be headed for another crushing defeat when they fell behind 2-0 to Marseille in midweek Europa League play, but they proved they’re still deserving of the newfound excitement by rallying to draw 2-2 and earn their first-ever point in European competition.
Although Brighton made history by being the first Premier League side this century to score and allow 20+ goals in their first ten games of a season in all competitions, manager Roberto De Zerbi will be worried about his defensive line. After their historic 3-0 victory over Liverpool in January, the hosts’ attention will now move to not just avoiding successive Premier League losses for the first time since October of last year, but also achieving their first string of consecutive league victories over Liverpool.
Since Liverpool’s most recent Premier League match, in which they lost 2-1 to Tottenham, their league-best 17-game winning streak (W12, D5) has been the talk of the town. Jürgen Klopp’s team was reduced to 10 men before being denied an early goal in the 34th minute due to “significant human error” on the part of VAR, and then later had another player sent off before giving up a game-winning own goal in the 96th minute.
The Reds demonstrated their mental toughness by coming back to easily defeat Belgian league leaders Union SG 2-0 in their midweek European assignment.
The fact that Liverpool retained all of their players on the field this time is maybe even more impressive given that they have the most league red cards of any side through seven games of a Premier League season with four.
Observe these players: Last season in the Premier League, Solly March dominated Liverpool, scoring or providing an assist for four of Brighton’s six goals against them (G2, A2). Alexis Mac Allister of Liverpool, who has scored for and against Brighton in the Premier League, will be his opponent. Dan Burn is the only other player to have done so.
In 13 of Brighton’s last 14 games, both teams have scored.
