Chelsea team news: De Cuyper and Wieffer return

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Albion head to Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

2025-09-26T09:30+01:00

Maxim De Cuyper's last appearance for Albion was in our 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth.

Albion will be aiming to pick up their first away points of the season when they face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, kick-off 3pm.

Team news

Mats Wieffer came on for the final five minutes of our 2-2 draw with Tottenham. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

Albion: Fabian Hurzeler confirmed that Mats Wieffer and Maxim De Cuyper will return to the squad for Saturday's game.

Jack Hinshelwood, Solly March and Adam Webster are the only absentees.

The head coach also spoke about Brajan Gruda and Yankuba Minteh.

"Brajan recovered this week, he had some days off because of a small issue, but he trained on Thursday, so he will be fine.

"Yankuba was the same, he trained on Thursday, he will be fine."

Chelsea: Levi Colwill, Liam Delap and Benoit Badiashile will all miss Saturday's game through injury, while Facundo Buonanotte is ineligible to face us. There are doubts as to whether or not Cole Palmer will be in the squad following his substitution against Manchester United after 20 minutes last weekend.

Their last line-up

Your XI 🆚 Man United!#CFC | #MUNCHE pic.twitter.com/rBHOJnTYuJ
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) September 20, 2025

In their last Premier League match, the Blues were beaten at Manchester United, after former Albion stopper Robert Sanchez received a straight red card early on.

Match facts

In all competitions, Chelsea have won nine and lost just one of their 12 previous home games against Brighton and Hove Albion (D2), winning their last three in a row since a 1-2 reverse in April 2023.

Brighton have won three of their last six league meetings with Chelsea (L3), this after winning none of their first 14 beforehand (D4 L10).

Chelsea have conceded twice in each of their last two Premier League matches, as many times as they’d done in their previous 15 games combined. They last did that in three games in a row in March and April 2024 (five in a row).

Brighton and Hove Albion have only kept one clean sheet in their last 17 Premier League matches, a 2-0 win over Wolves in May. Since the start of 2023-24, the only ever-present sides with fewer clean sheets than the Seagulls (14) are West Ham and Wolves (13 each).

91.8% of Chelsea’s passes in the Premier League this season have been short passes, the highest ratio of any side in the division. Brighton meanwhile have played 13.2% of their passes long, their highest in a season since 2018-19 (18.6%).

Brighton have drawn both of their Premier League matches when scoring first so far this season (1-1 v Fulham, 2-2 v Spurs) – although the Seagulls are unbeaten in their last 16 games when netting the first goal, 50% of them have ended as stalemates (W8 D8).

Chelsea are unbeaten in their last 12 home Premier League games (W9 D3), keeping seven clean sheets in their last nine at Stamford Bridge. They’re looking for four home clean sheets in a row for the first time since their first five under Thomas Tuchel between January and March 2021.

Brighton’s two scorers against Spurs were 21-year-olds Yankuba Minteh and Yasin Ayari. Since the start of last season, the Seagulls have had both the most different scorers aged 21 or younger (6) and the most goals by players of that age (21).

Moisés Caicedo has made both the most tackles (21) and the most interceptions (15) of any player in the Premier League this season. The Chelsea midfielder has been responsible for 25.6% of their overall tackles (21/82), the highest ratio by a player in a season Opta has on record since 2006-07.

Chelsea are the only team in the Premier League so far this season yet to name a player aged 30+ in their squad for a match, with Tosin Adarabioyo their current oldest at 27 years and 361 days versus Man Utd. Under Enzo Maresca, the only time that has happened was when Marcus Bettinelli was an unused sub five times in 2024-25 aged 32.

Match officials