Brighton vs Fulham preview and prediction: Home team to win narrowly.

Latest Brighton vs Fulham team news

Brighton are without Solly March, Adam Webster, and Julio Enciso due to knee injuries; Jack Hinshelwood (minor injury) and Baleba (knee) are doubtful. Hurzeler could give attacking left-back Maxim De Cuyper his Premier League debut in a four-man defense, alongside captain Lewis Dunk, Jan Paul van Hecke, and either Mats Wieffer or Tariq Lamptey on the right flank.

Kaoru Mitoma and Danny Welbeck – Brighton's joint top scorer last season with 11 goals – are expected to start in attack alongside Georgino Rutter and Yankuba Minteh. In midfield, Yasin Ayari and Diego Gomez could form a partnership.

For Fulham, Antonee Robinson has not played a single minute in preseason due to knee surgery in May and remains unavailable. Ryan Sessegnon could start on the left wing despite leaving the Frankfurt game early as a precaution.

Silva confirmed that striker Rodrigo Muniz is "available to play" despite his desire to move to Atalanta – a Serie A club that has made a £34 million offer. Raul Jimenez is likely to start. Young talent Joshua King impressed in preseason and will compete for the number 10 spot with Emile Smith Rowe. Harry Wilson – the team's top scorer in preseason (5 goals) – and Alex Iwobi will play on the wings.

Latest predicted lineups for Brighton vs Fulham

Brighton & Hove Albion:

Verbruggen; Wieffer, Van Hecke, Dunk, De Cuyper; Ayari, Gomez; Minteh, Rutter, Mitoma; Welbeck

Fulham:

Leno; Tete, Andersen, Bassey, Sessegnon; Berge, Lukic; Wilson, Smith Rowe, Iwobi; Jimenez

Latest football match prediction: Brighton vs Fulham

Brighton were one of the biggest spenders in Europe last summer, splashing out over £200 million on new players. However, Fabian Hurzeler, the youngest manager in Premier League history, was still unable to lead the club back to European competition, settling for a respectable eighth-place finish.

This summer, Newcastle United spent over £60 million bringing in six new players, including the young Greek talent Charalampos Kostoulas. However, they lost their star striker Joao Pedro to Chelsea and left-back Pervis Estupinan to AC Milan, while midfielder Carlos Baleba is still rumored to be joining Manchester United for a large fee.

Hurzeler is confident Brighton “can compete with the big teams” this season. The club has had an active pre-season, winning six and drawing one of seven friendly matches, including two 2-0 and 2-1 victories against Wolfsburg at home last weekend.

Brighton enter Saturday's match against Fulham with a run of four consecutive Premier League opening wins – a club record and currently the longest in the league. They also have reason to be optimistic, having scored the most goals in the Premier League (31) since their 0-7 defeat to Nottingham Forest in February. During this period, only Manchester City (30 points) and Aston Villa (29 points) have earned more points than Brighton (27 points – 8 wins, 3 draws, 3 losses).

Fulham are preparing for their fourth consecutive Premier League season and are aiming to return to the top 10 after finishing 11th last season with 54 points – the club's best ever performance in the league.

Marco Silva's team won all three friendly matches against Nottingham Forest, Al-Ittihad and Eintracht Frankfurt, with the 1-0 victory against Frankfurt last weekend coming from a beautiful free-kick by Raul Jimenez.

However, Silva experienced a "passive" summer transfer window, with the only new signing being reserve goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte for £500,000. He admitted the squad was "very thin" and called for reinforcements before the September 1st deadline.

Fulham have only won their opening game in one of their last eight seasons (three draws, four defeats) – a 1-0 victory against Everton in the 2023-24 season. Silva believes both Fulham and Brighton “will be nervous” going into this opening match.

Against Brighton, Fulham have won 50% of their 10 Premier League encounters (5 wins, 4 draws, 1 loss) – only Leicester City (58%) and Bolton Wanderers (55%) have a higher win rate against them in at least 10 matches. However, Fulham have only won one of their last seven away games against Brighton (3 draws, 3 losses), the most recent being a 1-0 victory in February 2023.

Latest Brighton vs Fulham score prediction

Based on the above football analysis, we and leading football websites worldwide have provided our predictions for the match.Brighton vs Fulhamas follows:

• Sportsmole:Brighton 2-1 Fulham

• WhoScore:Brighton 2-0 Fulham
• Our newspaper predicts:Brighton 2-1 Fulham

When and where can I watch Brighton vs Fulham live?

To watch the Brighton vs Fulham match live in the English Premier League at 9:00 PM on August 16th, viewers can tune in to the following channels:K+ Sport,K+PMor online sports channels. We hope you enjoy watching football.