Brighton & Hove Albion

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Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler, speaking to Premier League Productions: "I think we controlled the game. Played a good first half then we make too many mistakes. It goes back to 3-1 out of nowhere and we receive a red card. We show character and nearly make 3-3 but in the end not good enough."

On Jan Paul van Hecke: "Not a great feeling so we just wish him all the best and hopefully he's back on the pitch soon."

On the second half: "That was a bad start. We needed five or ten minutes to adapt and that can't happen."

On the defeat: "I have to analyse it then we will find solutions for it.

"When you saw the reaction in the first half that was good. It's not about confidence. When you win everything is easy. But in these moments we have to stick together."

On fan criticism: "Yeah, in the end we have to make the decisions that brings us the success. I tried to put some fast players like Kaoru Mitoma and Solly March, more midfielders on the pitch to control the game. In the end we didn't get the credit for the courage we showed.

"In the end it doesn't help when you lose a man but he said sorry to the team and he will learn from this."

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Danny Welbeck scored his ninth Premier League goal of the season for Brighton and Hove Albion, his joint-best return in a campaign in the competition, along with 2011-12 and 2013-14.

Were you at the game or following elsewhere?

Have your say on Brentford's performance

What did you make of Brighton's display?

Come back to this page on Monday to find a selection of your replies

Five matches make up Saturday's Premier League action and BBC Sport will bring you every kick.

• Brentford v Brighton

• Crystal Palace v Bournemouth

• Everton v Manchester City

• West Ham v Southampton

• Aston Villa v Newcastle (17:30 BST)

All kick-off times 15:00 BST unless stated

Follow all of the action and reaction here

Brighton have had a bit of a dip in form and started conceding a few goals, so their hopes of breaking into the top five are probably gone now.

Even so, the 10th-placed Seagulls are one of those teams where just when you think about writing them off, they will come up with a performance and wallop someone.

I don't expect that to happen on Saturday, however. Brentford are only one place below them in the table and although they are not on a great run either, the Bees are always hard to beat.

The more I think about it, the more it smells of a draw. I am pretty sure the BBC readers are going to go for a draw too, so we all agree on this one.

Sutton's prediction: 1-1

Read the full predictions and have your say here

Josh Lobley
BBC Sport journalist

Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League game at Brentford (kick-off 15:00 BST).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Hurzeler provided a squad availability update: "The big word is 'positivity' - Karou [Mitoma] is back, JP [van Hecke] is back and we have a lot of injured players who are at the end of their rehab and will be back training next week."

• He added that James Milner and Ferdi Kadioglu "have a chance" to feature before the end of the season.

• On Eiran Cashin's lack of minutes so far at the Amex: "I just had a conversation with him this week. I always tell players what I demand for them to step into the team. He really integrates himself into the group and works quite hard. I'm sure he will get an opportunity when the time is right."

• On Saturday's opponents: "They are a very athletic team and fast in the frontline. I've heard it's a nice atmosphere there and it's against an opponent who are difficult to beat.

• On Albion owner Tony Bloom: "He is a big supporter of the club, and he proves it with his actions. It's not just about being a member of the club, it's about being a part of the community. He is a role model."

• The players see this season's remaining matches as "six finals": "We know every game will be a challenge but it's also an opportunity and that is how we will approach it."

Follow all of Friday's Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news

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Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler spoke to BBC Radio Sussex about turning round a recent run of poor form: "The bond between the fans and the team always has to be strong because they support us the whole season.

"It is about showing the right reactions and getting back to the things that make us strong. We have proved this season that we can [bounce back] and we have to do it another time.

"Game by game, it's not about talking too much on the end of the season and focusing on the development.

"If you get too distracted by the highs and the lows, you get too emotional and we don't make the right decisions."

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Brentford have won just one of their seven Premier League games against Brighton and that was a 2-0 home victory in October 2022.

Manchester United have at least four potential goalkeeper targets in mind for this summer, including Brighton's Bart Verbruggen. (i paper - subscription required), external

Chelsea are closely monitoring the development of Albion forward Georginio Rutter. (Florian Plettenberg), external

Want more transfer news? Read Wednesday's full gossip column

Follow the gossip column on BBC Sport

Scott McCarthy
Fan writer

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Brighton was nothing more than a small fishing village until the 18th century, when people began flocking to the town for the medicinal benefits believed to come from drinking and bathing in its seawater.

Fast forward 300 years or so and it is football teams who head to Brighton to cure ailments.

Lost nine games in a row? Not scored a Premier League goal for 830 minutes? Amex Stadium is the place to go.

Leicester became the latest to benefit from seeing Doctor Albion about their issues, breaking both their long losing streak and three-month wait to put the ball in the back of the net in a Premier League game.

This season is going to end with a significant gap between the relegation zone and the rest of the division. It is therefore fair to suggest this is collectively the worst bottom three since the Premier League came into being back in 1992.

And the Seagulls have not beaten one of them at home. Ipswich and Southampton also left Sussex with draws.

An appointment with Doctor Albion helped the Tractor Boys keep their first clean sheet of the season and claim their first away point in September. Saints ended a run of nine consecutive away defeats at the Amex in November.

Had Brighton beaten all three soon-to-be-relegated sides at home, they would be one point off the Champions League spots currently. If the Albion miss out on Europe this season, it is this failure to beat struggling opponents at home which will be most costly.

And it is why the remainder of the season looks troublesome. An outsider might look and think Brighton are in a good position with Liverpool and Newcastle the only top-10 sides left to play.

But Albion fans know that means four of their final six matches are the sort of games Fabian Hurzeler is yet to find a way to win. Now would be a good time to change that...

Find more from Scott McCarthy at We Are Brighton, external

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We asked for your views on the 2-2 draw between Brighton and Leicester in the Premier League.

Here are some of your comments:

Brighton fans

Stuart: One of the worst performances I've seen at the Amex. Dunk was really poor, and I love Hinshelwood, but he's not a right-back - he is constantly out of position. Too many passes on the edge of the box, please just shoot. Leicester deserved the point.

Jas: As awful as it was predictable. There weren't many Brighton fans turning up expecting us to win. The squad is ravaged by injuries, Dunk very sadly no longer good enough for this level and a head coach that's just been given a role too big for him. Any talk of Europe has to stop as we should just hope we can finish in the top half. It's been a really underwhelming season. Need it to be over quickly!

Anton: See it so many times, great play and clever moves until it gets to the last strike, then it all goes wrong. We have missed a ton of goals season after season which should have been converted. Watching us move the ball with clever calculated passes, great intelligent game play and sometimes an almost second sight, just to be let down in front of goal.

Leicester fans

Brad: Who is this Leicester side?! Couldn't score if our lives depended on it! And yet on Saturday they played like a team that had something to fight for! Let's hope we can now end this season on a bit of a high.

Mick: Mavididi our best player - why hasn't the manager used him this season? There's a half decent team in there somewhere but Van Nistelrooy hasn't got a clue what his best team is, nor can he inspire them to fight for the club whose shirt they are wearing.

Dave: A much better performance from the lads and on another day with a different referee we may have won the game. Coady penalty was harsh, Mavididi not given a penalty when his opponent had his hands around the neck/throat and his face. Encouraging signs, but we had them against West Ham too just after Ruud arrived.

Highlights and analysis from Saturday's five Premier League fixtures.

If you missed Match of the Day, you can catch up now on BBC iPlayer.

Listen back to full match commentaries on BBC Sounds:

• Nottingham Forest 0-1 Everton

• Arsenal 1-1 Brentford

Adwaidh Rajan
BBC Sport journalist

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Brighton's only appearance in Europe came during the 2023-24 season after Roberto de Zerbi guided them to the Europa League with a sixth-placed finish in the Premier League.

It was the first time in their 122-year history that the Seagulls had qualified for a European competition, which ended with them losing to Roma in the last 16 after topping a group that had AEK Athens, Ajax and Marseille.

On the back of a summer where Fabian Hurzeler spent around £200m on nine new signings and with England earning an extra fifth spot in the Champions League, this season was a great opportunity for Brighton to push for a European spot.

But their 2-2 draw against strugglers Leicester City, who had not won in eight games before Saturday, might have left them with a tall order in their bid to finish among the top seven places in the league.

The Seagulls have now lost two and drawn two of their past four league outings while also exiting the FA Cup after a cruel defeat by Nottingham Forest.

EFL Cup winners Newcastle United and leaders Liverpool are among the six opponents left to come for Hurzeler's side.

But Brighton will believe they are still in with a chance to reach Europe with the duo the only top-half opponents they will face between now and end of the season.

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Fabian Hurzeler spoke to BBC Match of the Day after Brighton's draw against Leicester: "Very disappointed, very frustrating because it was not a mature performance, we were too naive. We didn't act like we should. We didn't deserve more.

"It's not about the chances, it's about defending and not conceding a goal and doing the basics right. Today we weren't able to do the basics right and we were not able to win the game. We weren't able to deal with the second goal we conceded and that's something we can't accept.

"We were not mature enough, were too naive and we have to move on. The season is not over yet, we have to show a reaction because this cannot continue."

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Brighton and Hove Albion have dropped 20 points from winning positions in the Premier League this season, the second time they've dropped as many in a single campaign in the competition after 2020-21 (25).

Were you at the game or following from elsewhere?

Have your say on Brighton's performance

Foxes fans, what did you make of Leicester's display?

Come back to this page on Monday to find a selection of your replies

If you ever want a game to get back on track, just play Leicester.

They have lost eight successive league games without scoring, and that run is not going to end here.

Ruud van Nistelrooy was a dreadful appointment as manager but I do not blame him nor his predecessor, Steve Cooper, for the Foxes' awful season because there is a deeper underlying problem at the club.

It did not help, then, that the players seemed to think - and probably still do - that they are better than they are.

The fans were expecting too much from this season too, but I doubt that is the case any more, because their team has been so feeble.

Brighton have taken only one point from their past three matches so they need a win to boost their hopes of finishing in the European places.

I have absolutely no doubt they will get it - the only question is how many will they score.

Sutton's prediction: 2-0

Read the full predictions and have your say

Five matches make up Saturday's Premier League action and BBC Sport will bring you every kick.

• Manchester City v Crystal Palace (12:30)

• Brighton v Leicester City

• Nottingham Forest v Everton

• Southampton v Aston Villa

• Arsenal v Brentford (17:30)

Kick-off times 15:00 BST unless stated

Follow all of the action and reaction here

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There are lots of different perspectives in terms of how you watch a game of football, and I think for the majority of time the people in the stadium get the best atmosphere, but the worst views of how a game has actually gone.

You don't really get the chance to see multiple replays and have discussions about things, because you just get caught up in the moment.

With the incoming semi automated offsides, they did promise it earlier in the season - but I think the caveat was they're only going to do it when it's ready.

It is a positive that they didn't do it when it wasn't ready.

One upside to to the new technology is some of the arguments disappear. Previously you could say 'but it looks like it's this to me' or 'it looks like it's that to me'. When it is presented now, there aren't many people that will then be looking at the animation, going back to the video, and then going down a proper conspiracy rabbit hole.

So, it ends more arguments, not all arguments, but more arguments.

I think people, as a consequence, will be more accepting of it.

But, I still do believe that there's things for people to understand, because it can't be used in every situation. There are certain decisions which can still be a little bit more complex, and there's certain times where human intervention will still need to be brought in.

I wouldn't say it's as clear as, say, goal line technology, but it's a step in the direction to where most people feel more comfortable accepting the outcome and the speed of it as well will be encouraged.

It's not to say that it's going to be instant. If you believe this is going to be perfect, and always extremely fast, ask yourself, why do you think that?

Unless somebody has told you that from PGMOL, then take it with a pinch of salt and you see how it goes.

I think it's something that many people have seen before so hopefully there will be fewer arguments.

But, because it's football, there'll always be something to argue about the end of the day.

Josh Lobley
BBC Sport journalist

Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League game against Leicester (kick-off 15:00 BST).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Hurzeler says there are "no big changes" regarding squad availability, but Kaoru Mitoma is a doubt.

• He says there are "different options" to replace the suspended Jan Paul van Hecke in defence: "[Eiran] Cashin will be one for sure, Mats Wieffer has played there already and Carlos Baleba is an option. Let's see how they do in training and make a decision."

• Hurzeler added that a change in formation on Saturday is also a possibility to help replace Van Hecke.

• On Saturday's opponents: "It doesn't matter if we might be the better team, we still have to be the challenger in every game. We have to be ready to make important decisions and it's about hard work."

• Danny Welbeck is now Brighton's top scorer in Premier League history and Hurzeler spoke highly on his influence in the team: "He is a leader on and off the pitch and a role model for his behaviour. I am very happy that he's in good shape. This record is not just because he is a good player, it is because of hard work."

• Hurzeler also gave an assessment of Yankuba Minteh's first season at the club: "He has the right attitude - he tries to work hard and he is a good listener. I'm really happy that he is getting more involved in the goals but that is not the factor that I judge him on, it's about how he influences our game."

Follow all of Friday's Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news

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Brighton have won just 1.25 points per game in Premier League games against sides in the bottom three and have lost more (14) of these games than they have won (13).