English Premier
2026-02-08 - Brighton vs Crystal Palace
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Premier League
Sunday 8th February 2025 - Kick Off 2pm
This game is live on TV
Brighton
If it wasn't for rivals Crystal Palace winning the FA Cup, it would have been Brighton playing European Football this season instead. The second M23 derby of the Premier League season takes place on Sunday and Brighton will be looking to help this rival continue their slump, while also seeing The Seagulls bounce back from the very late goal conceded to Everton last weekend.
For a club chasing a return to European Football, the two points dropped last weekend have seen Brighton slip into 13th place in the Premier League table and 8 points behind Liverpool in the top six. Fabian Hurzeler has done a fine job as manager of the club, but the board have big expectations and he could be under pressure if Brighton were to miss out on European Football again,
Brighton conceded in injury time last weekend and have won 2 of the last 12 games in all competitions and only one of those has been in the Premier League. They have only lost once at home all season, but in recent weeks the challenge has been trying to win games here and Brighton have managed that in 1 of the last 6 Premier League fixtures at the Amex Stadium.
Diego Gomez is hoping to be available for selection, but Mats Wieffer and Solly March are trending towards another absentee from the match day squad.
Crystal Palace
It has been another disruptive month for Crystal Palace, just as it was in the lead up to the Premier League season kicking off in August, and that has been a source of frustration for Oliver Glasner. At one stage it looked like the manager may even have walked before the end of the season, when he has already announced he will be departing, but Glasner and the players are coming together for one more big push.
Late transfer work may have pleased Glasner a bit more, but he would also have been hoping for those players to have arrived earlier in a bid to end Crystal Palace's slide down the Premier League table. They head into this weekend in 15th place in the Division and 9 points clear of the relegation zone, while the draw at the City Ground last weekend improved the away record to 5-2-5 in the top flight.
Crystal Palace have not won any of the last 12 games in all competitions, but the 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest ended a run of 3 straight defeats. The Eagles had lost 3 straight away Premier League games before that point at the City Ground and Crystal Palace had been beaten in 4 of 5 away games in all competitions prior to that result.
Jean-Philippe Mateta looked set to leave for AC Milan, but his transfer was withdrawn on the final day of the January transfer window when he failed to pass a medical. That has not stopped Jorgen Strand Larsen from joining Crystal Palace and Mateta is expected to miss out this weekend. Adam Wharton is back from a suspension, but there are still a number of injury issues in the Crystal Palace squad.
Head to Head
These teams played out a goalless draw at Selhurst Park in November.
Brighton had won twice in a row against Crystal Palace at home, but that run was ended emphatically in January 2025 when The Eagles ran away with a 1-3 victory here.
Prediction
For outsiders, the M23 derby seems like a manufactured rivalry considering the distance between Selhurst Park and the Amex Stadium.
However, for the fans of Brighton and Crystal Palace, this is a hugely important game and that will be the case when the television cameras arrive to broadcast this fixture as a part of the 'Super Sunday' double.
It may not have implications at the top of the standings, but these are two clubs that would have had ambitions of playing in European Football again next season.
Setbacks and a prolonged run of results without the wins adding up means both are struggling to keep in touch with those above them, while Crystal Palace's 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest last weekend arrested a slide that threatened to see them join the relegation fight.
Both managers are under some pressure and it is already feeling like the Cup competitions that Brighton and Crystal Palace are still participating in will prove to be the best pathway into European Football.
For now the focus has to be on this rivalry game and both teams will be looking for a victory that may give them the momentum and confidence to start a strong end to the campaign.
Brighton are rightly favoured being at home, but they have proven to be tough to beat here, while also struggling to do enough to turn draws into wins.
This feels like being the case for Brighton again and they will certainly be tested by a Crystal Palace team that looks to have restored some pace to the counter attack. Jorgen Strand Larsen has not been enjoying a very good season at Wolves, but he has perhaps been distracted having failed to move in the summer and this is a striker that scored 14 Premier League goals last season and so may offer Crystal Palace something different in the final third.
There is no doubt the away side will cause problems, although Oliver Glasner's men are just lacking a bit of confidence.
Three months ago, Brighton and Crystal Palace played out a stalemate at Selhurst Park and there is every chance another develops here.
Brighton have not been scoring enough goals to ever feel comfortable within a match, while Crystal Palace's result last weekend may have just given the team enough resiliency to force another this Sunday.
Nothing will come easy and there are going to be tight margins at play, but 4 of the last 5 Brighton home games have ended in low-scoring draws and there is every chance that this will be another of those.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Brighton 1-1 Crystal Palace
