Roberto De Zerbi begins his reign as Albion head coach with a trip to Liverpool on Saturday, kick-off 3pm.
It’s been a long wait for a Premier League match for the men’s first team, who have had two consecutive Premier League games postponed, while also having to deal with the departure of Graham Potter to Chelsea.
October’s fixtures will be a baptism of fire for the new head coach, with the game against Liverpool followed by matches against Spurs, Manchester City and Chelsea, as well as Brentford and Nottingham Forest.
The Italian will be hoping to continue our fine start to the campaign – Albion have won four of their opening six league games.
Liverpool have had a mixed start to the campaign, drawing three of their six games so far.
Team news
Men's first-team head coach Roberto De Zerbi said, "Adam Lallana trained today with the squad and the first XI. I think he can't start but he feels good. Tariq Lamptey trained yesterday (Thursday) for the first time. He feels good but I think Lamptey will not be ready to start.
"Enock Mwepu is unavailable. We are waiting for him because he is a big loss for him. Everybody else is okay."
Our last meeting
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Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah got the goals in a 2-0 win over Albion at the Amex in March, but our last trip to Anfield proved fruitful. Having been 2-0 down early on, Albion recovered to take a point as Enock Mwepu and Leandro Trossard got on the scoresheet.
The Liverpool player to watch
Mohamed Salah has been directly involved in 11 goals in his ten Premier League games against Brighton, scoring six and assisting five. However, the only two occasions he’s failed to register a goal involvement against the Seagulls have come in games at Anfield (November 2019, February 2021).
Stats
Liverpool have lost just one of their 10 Premier League meetings with Brighton (W7 D2), a 1-0 home loss in February 2021.
Having avoided defeat in just two of their first 11 away league games against Liverpool (W1 D1 L9), Albion are unbeaten in their last two such visits to Anfield (W1 D1).
This is just the second time that Brighton (4th) are facing Liverpool (8th) in a top-flight game while above them in the table, following a 3-3 draw at the Goldstone Ground in October 1981 (Brighton 7th, Liverpool 8th).
Liverpool are unbeaten in their last 26 Premier League games at Anfield (W20 D6), keeping 15 clean sheets in this run. In the 11 games in which they’ve conceded, they’ve conceded the first goal eight times including each of the last six.
Brighton have lost just one of their last 11 Premier League games (W7 D3), going down 2-1 at Fulham in August. Taking into account each current side’s last 10 Premier League games, only Tottenham (26) and Manchester City (24) have earned more points than Brighton (23).
This will be Albion boss Roberto De Zerbi’s first ever Premier League game in charge; each of the previous five managers whose first game came against Liverpool at Anfield have lost – David Pleat in August 1995 (0-1), Chris Hutchings in August 2000 (0-1), Ronald Koeman in August 2014 (1-2), Daniel Farke in August 2019 (1-4) and Marcelo Bielsa in September 2020 (3-4).
All three of Roberto Firmino’s Premier League goals for Liverpool this season have come in home games, while all five of his strikes last term came away. He’s been directly involved in seven goals in his last three league appearances at Anfield (3 goals, 4 assists).
Brighton’s Alexis Mac Allister has scored four goals in his last four Premier League games, as many as he had in his previous 34 in the competition.
Pascal Gross has 20 goals and 29 assists in his Premier League career so far – he could be the first Brighton player to reach 50 goal involvements in the competition, and the fourth German player to do so after Mesut Ozil (87), Leroy Sane (53) and Ilkay Gundogan (51).
Match officials
Referee - Andrew Madley
Assistant Referee 1 - Derek Eaton
Assistant Referee 2 - Steven Meredith
Fourth Official - Tony Harrington