EPL: Brighton, Leicester Battle To Return To Winning Ways

Brighton’s summer transfer activity was certainly highlighted by the outgoings of two integral cogs in Marc Cucurella and Yves Bissouma, but Graham Potter’s side made a bright start to another top-flight season before a trip to Craven Cottage befell them.

Newsonline report that Aleksandar Mitrovic and a Lewis Dunk own goal put Fulham in cruise control before Brighton threatened a comeback after Alexis Mac Allister’s spot kick, but the Seagulls ultimately suffered their first defeat of the new campaign.

Nevertheless, a 10-point haul from the opening 15 on offer has seen Brighton make an early charge for the Champions League spots, and the South coast team remain in the top four at the time of writing having conceded a league-low three goals so far.

Despite waving goodbye to some of their seemingly irreplaceable players, keeping the much-coveted Potter in the hotseat seems to be a consistent formula for success for Brighton, who were active on transfer deadline day with the signing of Billy Gilmour in a £9 million deal from Chelsea.

Now returning to home comforts at the Amex, Brighton are yet to concede a Premier League goal on home soil this season and have now gone unbeaten in six top-flight games at their headquarters, which does not spell optimism for a hapless Leicester outfit.

Compared to their free-spending rivals, Leicester’s distinctly quiet summer window sticks out like a sore thumb, and the frustrations of Brendan Rodgers were there for all to see when his side went 1-0 down to Man United on deadline day.

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A first-half winner from Jadon Sancho did the damage on Thursday night as Leicester’s woeful start to the new season continued, and Rodgers appeared to take a swipe at the owners for a lack of incomings, as Wout Faes – one of just two arrivals – helplessly watched on.

Keeping in line with Financial Fair Play regulations is apparently the main factor behind Leicester’s conservative summer approach, but failure to improve the squad has left the Foxes rooted to the bottom of the table with just one point from five games so far.

Since being pegged back by Brentford on the opening day of the season, Rodgers has overseen four consecutive defeats with this Leicester side, although their two away defeats so far this term have come to top-four challengers in Chelsea and Arsenal.

However, Leicester can be encouraged by the fact that Brighton have only won one of their 10 Premier League meetings since earning promotion to the big time in 2017, although that did come in a 2-1 success at the Amex last season.

Brighton possible XI: Sanchez, Veltman, Dunk, Webster, March, Caicedo, Gross, Estupinan, Trossard, Mac Allister, Welbeck.

Leicester City possible XI: Ward, Justin, Faes, Evans, Castagne, Ndidi, Tielemans, Dewsbury-Hall, Maddison, Daka, Barnes.