The first of two Friday night Premier League fixtures arrives at the Amex as Brighton face Brentford down on the south coast.
After starting the season superbly, Fabian Hurzeler’s Seagulls have drifted into mid-table obscurity having endured a pretty wretched run of form. Brighton are winless in five and without a victory on home soil since they came from behind to down the champions 2-1 on 9 November.
Still, the tightly packed nature of a chaotic division means the Seagulls are just a couple of triumphs on the bounce away from the table making for much prettier reading.
Brentford have struggled on their travels this term, but Thomas Frank’s outfit have nonetheless exceeded expectations in the aftermath of Ivan Toney’s exit.
They were subject to their first home defeat of the season at the weekend and have slipped to 12th in the table, but many were concerned in pre-season that the west Londoners would flirt with the relegation conversation.
Hurzeler hopes to have Mats Wieffer available for Brentford’s visit after the Dutchman limped off having just scored his first Brighton goal on Saturday. The Dutchman, if fit, will partner the excellent Carlos Baleba in the middle of the park.
Yankuba Minteh should come in for Brajan Gruda down the right, and there could be recalls to the squad for Adam Webster and Solly March. Danny Welbeck, however, misses out again due to an ankle injury.
The Seagulls are also without Jack Hinshelwood, James Milner and Ferdi Kadioglu for the foreseeable.
Brentford’s injury list is extensive and their issues only worsened at the weekend after Mads Roerslev was forced off with a head injury having been brought on in the second half. He likely won’t play a part on Friday.
The Bees will soon hope to have summer signing Igor Thiago available after a lengthy absence, but the striker is currently battling an illness and may not feature until the new year. Ethan Pinnock, Josh Dasilva, Mathias Jensen, Rico Henry and Sepp van den Berg are also likely to return next month.
