Fulham team news: Baleba fit to face Cottagers

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Albion take on the Cottagers.

Charlie Hanson

2025-08-15T10:15+01:00

Carlos Baleba. 📷 by James Boardman.

Our men’s first team begin their 2025/26 Premier League campaign on Saturday as they take on Fulham at the Amex, kick-off 3pm.

Team news

Solly March isn't available to face Fulham on the opening day of the season. 📷 by James Boardman.

Albion head coach Fabian Hurzeler, "Now I only have to mention two names. It's a big change compared to last season. So a big thank you to my medical staff, to my physios. They did a great job during the summer, so the only players are not available are Adam Webster and Solly March, they are the long-term ones.

"I don't know the clear schedule about them but all the other players are available. So it’s a big change and a positive change, and hopefully it stays like this."

Carlos Baleba has been at the centre of a lot of transfer speculation in the last couple of weeks, but Hurzeler has no doubt about where the Cameroonian will be playing his football this coming campaign.

"Very, very, very confident [that he will not leave]. I didn't see any change in him. He only changed his hair, so I think that was the only change he made in the last two weeks!

"But overall, he seems to be in a really good place. He's enjoying it with his teammates. He's enjoying being a Brighton player. He's very grateful to have the progress he made in the last season. So I didn't see any big change."

Fulham manager Marco Silva. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

Fulham boss Marco Silva said, "There are not really any injuries. We had a situation last season with Antonee Robinson and he is still recovering. Soon you are going to see him in contention for the games but this weekend is too early.

"Ryan Sessegnon came out in the last game against Eintracht Frankfurt and we will see how he is. We've got another session tomorrow and that is when we will take a decision.

"Apart from these two, everyone else is in contention for Brighton."

Their last line-up

Cottage XI. 📋 pic.twitter.com/reJ6yOJuk0
— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) August 9, 2025

Raul Jimenez grabbed the only goal of the game in the Cottagers’ final game of pre-season, as they beat Eintracht Frankfurt at Craven Cottage.

Match stats

Brighton beat Fulham 2-1 in March, ending a nine-game winless run against the Cottagers in the Premier League (D4 L5).

Fulham have won just one of their last seven away league games against Brighton (D3 L3), beating them 1-0 in February 2023.

Fulham have won 50% of their 10 Premier League games against Brighton (W5 D4 L1) – of sides they’ve faced 10+ times in the competition, only against Leicester (58%) and Bolton (55%) do they have a higher win rate.

Brighton have won their opening league match in each of the last four seasons. It’s the Seagulls’ longest such run in their league history, and the longest current run of any Premier League side.

Fulham have won their opening league match in just one of the last eight campaigns (D3 L4), winning 1-0 at Everton in 2023-24.

Since the matchday immediately following Brighton’s 7-0 loss to Nottingham Forest in February, the Seagulls have scored more Premier League goals than any other side (31), while only Manchester City (30) and Aston Villa (29) have picked up more points than Brighton in that time (27 – W8 D3 L3).

None of Fulham’s last 18 Premier League games have been drawn (W8 L10). It’s their longest run without a draw in the top-flight since a run of 23 between December 2018 and October 2020 (W5 L18).

Fulham have conceded 999 goals in 684 Premier League games. They would be the 13th different side to concede 1000 in the competition, with only Leicester (679) doing so in fewer than 700 games previously.

Should he feature in this game, it will be Brighton veteran James Milner’s 17th appearance on MD1 in the Premier League, with only Frank Lampard (18) making more such appearances.

Only against West Ham (8) has Fulham’s Alex Iwobi been involved in more Premier League goals than he has against Brighton (6), with the Seagulls the only side he’s both scored (3) and assisted (3) 3+ goals against.

Match officials