Fresh from their second-best-ever Premier League finish, Brighton and Hove Albion will no doubt again pique the interest of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers in 2025/26.
Not one of their players costs more than £6.5m this season, so there are potential bargains up for grabs.
The Seagulls are the focus of our latest 2025/26 FPL team preview.
In this team guide, we’ll be looking at Brighton’s best FPL picks for the upcoming campaign. We’ll also take an early stab at their predicted line-up for Gameweek 1, look at the good and bad, assess the opening fixtures, detail their best players for defensive contributions (DC) and more.
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BRIGHTON: REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
GOALS, GOALS, GOALS
Brighton were ranked joint-fifth for goals scored last season, racking up 66 in total.
In just five of their 38 matches did they fail to score, four of them curiously at the Amex.
Nottingham Forest were the only team to stop them from finding the net on the road, with Hurzeler’s plucky troops scoring against all of the top five both home and away. That’s something to consider when we look at fixture difficulty.
The goals were spread out, too, with 17 different players on the scoresheet but no one bagging more than 10. That should ensure that Joao Pedro (£7.5m) isn’t missed too much, although the collective effort is not ideal if you’re after a free-scoring talisman in FPL.
Above: Not just penalty merchants: Brighton were sixth for open-play xG last season, according to StatsBomb
TRANSFER MARKET SUCCESS
Is there a better team at wheeling and dealing than Brighton? Buy low, sell high, have the replacement all ready and waiting.
And they’ve actually held on to most of their key assets this summer, with most of the outgoings bar Pedro surplus to requirements.
The incomings fit the usual well-scouted bill: all bar one of them under 25, with none of them costing north of £30m.
BRIGHTON: REASONS TO BE FEARFUL
DEFENSIVE DEFICIENCIES NEED IRONING OUT
Only six clubs conceded more goals than the Seagulls’ 59 last season. And Brighton’s meagre tally of eight clean sheets was again only better than half a dozen clubs.
Opta pinned some of the blame on Bart Verbruggen (£4.5m), with their data suggesting he was the most underachieving goalkeeper in the league:
Hurzeler’s high line and front-foot aggressive defending, especially when the creaking Lewis Dunk (£4.5m) is one of the two centre-halves covering, also has to do some explaining. Statsbomb say that the Seagulls were behind only Arsenal and Man City for defensive actions furthest away from their own goal, which might partly explain the following.
Firstly, Brighton’s average shot conceded distance was the closest to goal of all 20 teams:
And secondly, no club gave away more spot-kicks:
Bypass the high-line harrying and you’ve got a defence scrambling to get back.
ROTATION, ROTATION, ROTATION
