English Premier
2025-08-24 - Everton vs Brighton
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Premier League
Sunday 24th August 2025 - Kick Off 2pm
This game is live on TV
Everton
The new era for Everton Football Club begins on Sunday when they play their first ever game in their new Stadium, the Hill Dickenson Stadium, and David Moyes will be hoping the occasion inspires the players to a much better performance. They were poor last week at Elland Road and Everton were beaten 1-0, albeit controversially as David Moyes and James Tarkowski made clear in post-match interviews.
A penalty made the difference, but David Moyes was not very happy with the intensity and effort showed on Monday evening. He will have put the squad through their paces over the last few days in preparation for the home opener, both in terms of this season and overall at the new Stadium. The Toffees had a 5-9-5 record at Goodison Park last season.
Everton had won their last 3 Premier League games to close out the last campaign, but that run was ended in the defeat to Leeds United. That result follows a disappointing pre-season and David Moyes has been upset with the lack of incomings to bolster the squad. Everton had not won any of 7 games in all competitions at Goodison Park, but did round off the season with a victory over Southampton.
Jarrad Branthwaite is expected to return after the September international break, while both Nathan Patterson and Vitalii Mykolenko are hoping to return this weekend.
Brighton
Every summer Brighton are a club that will freshen up the squad, but keeping hold of Carlos Baleba feels important for a team that are going to be chasing a return to European Football next season. Plenty of reinvestment has been made to pursue those ambitions and Fabian Hurzeler will have been largely pleased by what he saw on the opening weekend.
However, a lack of focus right at the end of injury time allowed Fulham to equalise and Brighton may feel they have dropped two points. Some encouragement will come from the defensive performance considering how Brighton struggled in their own final third last season, but the manager will be looking for a bit more from his team. The Seagulls finished with an 8-5-6 away record in the top flight in the last campaign.
Brighton may not have won the opening League fixture, but they are unbeaten in 6 Premier League games and have won 4 of those matches. They end last season with consecutive away League victories at Wolves and Tottenham Hotspur and only three clubs earned more away points than Brighton.
Jack Hinshelwood is hoping to be passed fit. New signing Charalampos Kostoulas should travel with the squad having had another week of training under the legs.
Head to Head
Both Everton and Brighton beat the other away from home in the League last season.
Everton have not only failed to win any of their last 4 at home against Brighton, but they have been beaten in 3 of those matches.
Prediction
The fans will not have been impressed with the Everton performance at Leeds United, but there will be an excitement in the air when they arrive at the Hill Dickenson Stadium.
A new home is going to raise hopes that Everton can move back amongst the elite of English Football.
It has been a long time since Everton have been able to mix company with the best teams and David Moyes is still trying to manage a squad through something of a transition. He has not been overly impressed with the activity in the transfer market, and the 1-0 loss at Leeds United may have been a result that justifies his complaints, but Everton should perform much better in their new home surroundings.
They will need to do that if they are going to deal with a Brighton team that have returned Everton with wins in 3 of their last 4 visits.
Fabian Hurzeler will know his team should have beaten Fulham last weekend, but there was plenty to like about the Brighton performance. One of the issues of recent years is putting the final touches to some of the football being played and that was costly for Brighton last week, but they have been better at outperforming the underlying numbers over the last couple of seasons.
Only three teams earned more points than Brighton away from home in the Premier League last season and The Seagulls look capable of spoiling the Everton party.
David Moyes will get a reaction from the squad, but he is looking for more players to be signed before the transfer window shuts and Everton could be a little vulnerable here.
Containing Brighton will be a huge challenge and the recent results against this opponent suggest the away side are worth backing to do a little better than last weekend and secure the points. The best approach looks to be backing Brighton on any of the Draw No Bet markets available knowing the stake will be returned in the event the points being shared.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Everton 1-2 Brighton
