EPL: Brighton vs Crystal Palace Preview: Tips, Odds, and Prediction

At the time of writing, Brighton have an even number of wins, draws, losses over their last six outings.

Following back-to-back defeats to Liverpool, they boldly bounced back to beat the champions, Manchester City, in a shock 2-1 result at home. They have also triumphed over giants Manchester United, Newcastle and Tottenham this season.

Against Fulham on December 5, they put in a good performance, but a couple of costly mistakes saw them punished 3-1, despite pulling it back to a draw after Dutch goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen gifted Alex Iwobi with a goal after four minutes.

In their latest fixture, they were held to a 2-2 draw away to former champions Leicester City. Goals from Tariq Lamptey (37’) and Yankuba Minteh (79’) meant the Seagulls led the entire game until Jamie Vardy fired back in the 86th minute, then Bobby De Cordova-Reid levelled in stoppage time to deny the visitors the full three points. The late comeback from The Foxes resulted in Brighton dropping down two places in the table from fifth.

Palace have only lost once in their last six games, earning seven valuable points. They only managed to find three points in their opening six matches of the season but have now begun to turn the tide.

Austrian Oliver Glasner encourages attacking play and aggression, which is imperative in the competitive Premier League. Their manager also urges the use of width and intensity, which Daniel Munoz and Tyrick Mitchell provide from their wing-back positions.

Midfielder William Hughes has been solid as a rock in midfield in recent performances, but the team are struggling to get those all-important goals that make the difference.

However, they were able to hold the current champions, Man City, to a draw at the weekend, even taking the lead twice against a team with a combined value of £900 million. Daniel Munoz netted early in the fourth minute, after firing in from a smart pass from Will Hughes. After scoring his first for the club last weekend, he now has two in two at Selhurst Park. Haaland equalised in the first half, keeping up his record of always scoring against Palace in the Premier League, but then the hosts took the lead again at 56 minutes when Maxence Lacroix headed past Ortega for their second. But then Rico Lewis evened the score again 12 minutes later to see the two sides share the spoils.

Despite a shaky start, unable to win any of their first eight fixtures of the new season, the south London giants are slowly coming good. It’s just a single defeat for Palace in their last eight outings and are now four points clear of the drop zone.

They are entering into this historic rivalry at the right time because if they met at the beginning of the season then it would have been a very different story.