Every word from Fabian Hurzeler ahead of Aston Villa visit

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Albion could potentially go third in the Premier League on Wednesday night.

2025-12-02T12:00+00:00

Fabian Hurzeler's team sit fifth in the Premier League ahead of the upcoming midweek fixtures. 📷 by James Boardman.

Fabian Hurzeler discussed the impact of Lewis Dunk ahead of what is expected to be the skipper's 500th appearance for the club when we take on Aston Villa on Wednesday.

Can we start with team news – is it similar or the same as Sunday?

I hope it will be similar. We have to follow the protocol with Georginio (Rutter). We have to continue to assess him. We hope that he's available tomorrow and then all the other players will be as well.

With Georginio, was it a concussion?

It was not a concussion, but of course you have to follow the protocol. We have to take care of the players’ health.

What about Kaoru Mitoma?

Kaoru Mitoma was training yesterday [Monday] and he will train today. Then we have to decide if he's an option for the squad. But he's definitely really close.

Just while we're talking about availability, do you have confirmation of when Carlos Baleba will be available for the last time before the Africa Cup of Nations. Is it next weekend against Liverpool?

That might be the last game before he goes away for the Africa Cup of Nations.

You often speak about intensity and playing two games in four days. I know you have played midweek games this season in the Carabao Cup where we’ve seen a few more changes than there might be in a Premier League match. Do you have to rotate a little bit?

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In general, we try to build connections on the pitch. We try to have the same core squad on the pitch if it's possible. It's crucial that you continue building the connections. But on the other side, we also have players who deserve to play because they train well, every time they come into the game they do a good job. I have always emphasised the togetherness and I think these kind of periods – where you have three games in one week – are good chances to give players opportunities. They deserve it because I think it's so important to continue building the togetherness. But overall, the most important thing is to win this game, and we have to make the decisions to ensure we have the highest chance to do so.

If he plays, it's a very big occasion for Lewis Dunk, it’ll be his 500th appearance. He made his debut for Brighton 15 and a half years ago now. It's very rare that players stay at one club more or less for their entire career, and he's been through so many highs and lows at Brighton. How important is having a player like him around?

Massive. He's such an important player, such an important personality around the training ground. I said it from day one when I arrived here, he's my skipper. He's my leader. He went through highs, he went through lows. But one thing is so impressive, he always stayed Lewis Dunk. He has never changed. He has always stuck to his principles. He has always been there for the club. That's something that was very impressive now and in the football business, where we have a lot of changes and a lot of inconsistency. We are very pleased with how he's playing at the moment. He deserves that number of appearances because he worked hard for it.

By his own admission, Lewis said that maybe he wasn't quite at his best last season, but we’re seeing him back to his best this season, aren't we?

Lewis Dunk made his 499th club appearance in the 2-0 win at Forest on Sunday. 📷 by James Boardman.

At the moment he's in unbelievable shape and he's doing that because he always had the belief in his quality. He's training hard and therefore there's no surprise for me that he's in that shape. It's a similar situation to Danny Welbeck – he's so important for us in the locker room. He's so important for us as a leader. It's not only the fact that he's playing well, it's also the fact that he's a good connector in the locker room. That helps me and the club massively.

You have the one-year extension added at the end of this season [in his contract]. Is there potential that he could maybe have a longer term deal? He wants to be here beyond his playing career as well.

I'm not the only man who decides that in this club. Now we really focus on the present. We try to keep pushing, try to keep playing like we are playing at the moment, especially for the situation with Lewis. I always say, let the football decide. It's the same for Danny Welbeck. Keep playing well. If they keep doing well for us as a club, the football will decide on its own. My focus is to help them at the moment to stay available, to keep playing like they're playing. That's my only focus. Then we see what happens.

Aston Villa next. It seems like you're going for similar goals. There’s not much between you in terms of trying to get into Europe, potentially next season. They were the last club to win at the Amex – that was 11 home games ago. You have called the Amex your castle. What's the difference between April and now?

It's a new season. It's a new situation. They still have good players, they still have a really good coach. That's still a big challenge, but as I said before Nottingham Forest we have to clean up the air. That's the case as well for Aston Villa. It was a bad defeat. We had to suffer in our home game against them. We have to do it better than last time. We have to play with more intensity, with more energy. We have to play more maturely and that's our job tomorrow, to give our home fans the thing they deserve.

There have been reports in the last week in France that maybe Matt O’Riley will make his loan move to Marseille a permanent one. Has anything changed there? Do you see him potentially still being part of the squad going forward in the future?

He’s a Brighton player, he has a contract here, so we will observe his situation and then when the time for these kinds of decisions have to be made, we'll make the right decisions for sure.

Has much changed in your approach at home since that day in April against Villa that's led to this wonderful run of results?

Mats Wieffer paints a picture of frustration during our 3-0 defeat to Villa last season. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

No. I think in general we have stuck to our approach, to our principles. We don't change a lot regarding this. I think the most important thing is how your mindset is stepping into games like this - your attitude, your energy level, your intensity. This is much more important against teams like Aston Villa because they are a good football team. They try to build up from the back. They have individual quality. So in these kinds of games you need to sacrifice a lot, you need to understand in some moments we really have to stick together. We have to defend as a team; we have to run a lot. Then if you do these things right, then you have a big chance to win these kinds of games. The other thing is I think that the players are getting more and more mature. They're getting a better understanding how to win games against these experienced teams – and Aston Villa are one of the most experienced teams. They know how to win Premier League games, I'm quite confident that we have made a step further and that we can prove it tomorrow.

Unai Emery has a great record, he's won loads of trophies. His reputation in England is a little bit scarred by his time at Arsenal, but how highly do you rate him and what he's done in his career?

For me, he’s one of the best managers in the Premier League. He has a clear style of play, a clear identity. It's impressive what he has done with Aston Villa so far, what he has done in his career so far. Almost every club where he has been, he has been successful. That's something that is quite impressive. It will be a big challenge because the teams he has coached are always difficult to play against. That's the opportunity and that's the challenge we have to face tomorrow.

They started the season with a stutter. They're right up there now. Do you see them as title challenges?

That's not the topic I need to comment on because I just focus on my team. I really focus on how we can get the most success out of my team. We try to keep doing what we've done the last few weeks – we keep pushing, keep playing with intensity, keep trying to control the game. Then we proved this season that we can beat every team in the league. That's the same approach we will have tomorrow, with big self-confidence, big belief in our quality.

Nine of their 16 goals in the Premier League so far have come from outside the box. Do you have to do anything different to combat that?

Aston Villa 🤝 Scoring screamers pic.twitter.com/qXjen5ahVX
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) December 1, 2025

When you score so many goals from outside of the box, that speaks for individual quality. When you see the goals, they're quite nice. So you need to adjust and give the players the understanding as to how they score goals. But if you keep doing the things we did so far, I'm pretty confident that we can defend it. It's about defending as a team. It's not only about the centre-backs or the full-backs or the sixes to defend the box. We need to defend the goal to make sure that they have no chance to shoot from outside the box because it's definitely one of their strengths when they can score nine goals from distance. It seems to be that they're training to do this. So we have to be aware of that and we have to defend it as a team.

You started like a train against Forest. It was such a wonderful first 20 minutes especially. Is that the blueprint now? Is that what you want every game?

If there’s a wish list, then yes. It would be nice to start every game like this. But that's what I meant before with the mindset thing. It’s about how you approach a game like this and I need players tomorrow with big self-confidence, with big belief. I need players who want to have the ball, players who like to attack the opponents’ box, but also like to defend because everyone is talking about our first 20 minutes offensively. But the main thing was how fast we won the ball back, how good we were at counter pressing, how good our high pressure was. That's the main thing against teams like Villa. If you can keep a clean sheet, if you defend as a team, then I'm pretty sure that we have a big chance to win this game tomorrow. It's all about working hard, keeping a clean sheet and sticking together defensively. Then we know that we have the ability to outplay the opponent.

Is Danny Welbeck able to start three games in eight days?

Danny Welbeck made the 500th appearance of his club career in the 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest. 📷 by James Boardman.

He’s able to, if he will do it is another thing. But for sure we have to manage the player and it's about making the right decisions. It's about getting the most physical team who can play the highest intensity tomorrow on the pitch. We have to make the right decisions. We also have to take responsibility to protect the health of the player. We know the value of players like Danny Welbeck. They’re so important to keep fit and keep them available through the whole season. We have to make the right decisions. But if you ask him, he will say he will definitely be available to play.

Does it help having Stefanos (Tzimas) scoring and getting a little bit more game time and that belief to think that he could be starting the Premier League fixtures now?

Definitely. I said it after the game it's about improving his self-confidence. Goals always help strikers and this goal should give him a boost because I think he's working hard. He's a great personality. He's adapting quickly to the demands of the Premier League and he proved against Nottingham Forest what he's capable of doing. I'm sure that he's desperate to play, so let's see how we handle it tomorrow.

How important is it to have Jack Hinshelwood back available? You've got players on four yellow cards. Is it a case of not worrying about that and just thinking play the team because it might come at some point that they might get suspended.

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Fabian Hurzeler's Albion squad braved the wind and rain as they held their final training session of the week, before their trip to the East Midlands to play Nottingham Forest tomorrow.

It's very important to just play the team that you think are ready to play this game. It's not about trying to save them from getting a ban. It's more about saving them from getting an injury, that's our responsibility. If they have four yellows, there will be times where we have to find solutions for that. But now it's about winning the game and that's the only focus tomorrow.

It's so rare that a player stays at one club throughout their whole career like Lewis Dunk. Do you think that will happen again in the future?

I hope, but I can't promise it. I think it's getting rarer because it's not something you can ask in football – being loyal is also not that consistent in football. These are things that are getting more and more rare. But definitely if there's a club who understands the value from a player, if the player understands what he needs to do to perform for the club, what responsibility he has, then I'm quite confident that in the future there will be more examples, although I think that it won't happen that often anymore.

Will you commemorate it before or after with the players? I know John McGinn made 300 appearances for Villa and they did a big tifo for him. Do you know if there's anything planned or will you do anything as a group?

Let's see. I'm not sure if Lewis listens to the press conference, so I have to be a little bit careful with what I say. But let's see what happens. The club always really takes care of the players. The media department always have nice surprises for the players, for the coaches and for the staff. I think that the club will take care of these kind of things.