Sussex

Brighton, who have made a brilliant start to the season, head to Anfield to face Liverpool as part of a run of five successive away games. BBC Sport takes a look at some of the key themes going into Sunday's fixture.

Brighton fans in dreamland

Just when Brighton fans thought their excellent start to the campaign couldn't get much better, their side went and scored three goals in the first 10 minutes against Crystal Palace en route to equalling their joint-biggest win against their bitter rivals set way back in January 1956 in the old Third Division South.

Winning four league games in a row by an aggregate score of 15-0 has naturally led to a raft of articles examining their title credentials. That kind of talk may be premature but their blistering beginning has meant the rewriting of their record books.

The 23 league goals they have scored at a rate of 3.3 per game is the most they have netted after seven games of any season in the top four tiers. Across Europe's top five leagues, only Barcelona - with a frankly ridiculous 39 from their nine La Liga games - have scored more so far in 2026-27.

Just three sides have ever scored more after seven games of a Premier League season - Arsenal in 2009-10 (24), Manchester United in 2011-12 (24), and Manchester City in 2019-20 (27). Curiously, none of those sides went on to win the title.

The Seagulls kicked off a run of five games on the road across 14 days in three competitions as their second string drew 0-0 against Jablonec on Thursday. As well as this match at Anfield, they face back-to-back matches at Manchester City, which will give a good indication of what Fabian Hurzeler side could go on to achieve this season.

Liverpool looking to right home wrongs

While yet to find the kind of fluency opponents Brighton have shown this season, Liverpool have only lost one of Andoni Iraola's first 11 matches in charge - and that was against a fired-up Manchester City.

Their past two Champions League games have certainly provided plenty of entertainment, with a whopping 16 goals scored. Ten in the 'for' column is highly impressive but Iraola will not have enjoyed seeing his side conceding six, many of which were avoidable.

The Spaniard will be urging the Reds to transfer their cup form at Anfield into the Premier League. If they fail to beat the Seagulls it will be only the fourth time in their history that they have not won any of their first four home league games of a season after the 1894-95, 1911-12 and 2012-13 campaigns. They last won a home league game on 25 April against Crystal Palace.

They can at least call upon a strong record against Brighton in front of their own supporters, losing just one of their past 13 encounters.

Alexander Isak was their matchwinner last weekend at Brentford and his five goals in five league games is as many as he managed in his previous 20 for both Newcastle and Liverpool. Firmly finding his feet after such a horror start, the Swede has not been on the losing side in his past 15 top-flight matches.

Another big signing who remains under constant scrutiny is playmaker Florian Wirtz. After creating a whopping nine chances from open play against Brentford, he now tops the Premier League charts for that metric this season. However, for all the German's scheming, his assist for Victor Munoz last Saturday was only his second in the league this season.

Rio Ngumoha had no such troubles in a player-of-the-match display against Villarreal. The 18 year-old was devastating, ending the game with two assists, seven completed dribbles and the most touches in the opposition box (12).

Katie Stafford
BBC Sport journalist

Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler has been speaking to the media before Sunday's Premier League game against Liverpool at Anfield (kick-off 14:00 GMT).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Hurzeler confirmed Pascal Struijk will be assessed before a decision is made on his availability for Sunday: "It's not a big issue, but it's something that can get bigger if you risk it too early. We have to make wise decisions."

• Yankuba Minteh and Mats Wieffer are close to a return, with the Brighton boss "quite convinced" they will be back in the matchday squad next week if not on Sunday.

• He also confirmed Jason Steele missed Thursday's trip to Jablonec through illness, while a decision was made to rest Diego Gomez and Maxim de Cuyper before travelling to Liverpool.

• Hurzeler said they "have a lot of confidence and belief" following recent results, but it's about taking it "game-by-game" and not getting carried away with the league positioning.

• In response to whether he encourages fans to dream this season, he said: "I love our fans and if you have ambitions and a dream, then you should visualise it. It's important that our fans have these type of expectations, ambitions and dreams because then we get even more out of them and more connection. They should dream, and we will focus on the game."

• On Pascall Gross, who has missed less than 60 minutes of football so far this season: "There are some players who need this rhythm. We always want to have a player like him on the pitch and at the moment he seems to cope really well with this intensity and rhythm."

• He said he has "a really good team" around him that will help with the challenge of the next five games being away from home, adding: "Travel wastes time and energy. It's really important that you manage it well and we take care of recovery."

• On facing Andoni Iraola's Reds: "We know what we can expect from Liverpool. Very intense pressing so a very intense game. Anfield is always a very special environment and atmosphere. We have to be prepared mentally and physically, but we seem to be in a good place."

Hit play above to hear more from Hurzeler or listen on BBC Sounds here

Listen to live commentary of Liverpool v Brighton on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra 2 from 14:00 GMT on Sunday

Follow Friday's Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news

Image source, Getty Images

We asked for your views on Thursday's draw with Jablonec in the Conference League.

Here are some of your comments:

Phil: Always tricky away from home in Europe. Jablonec parked the bus and nearly stole a goal at the end on the break. A point was fair.

James: This makes sense after a really strong start to the league that we are a bit tired - but, again, what a start this season it has been.

James: Brighton fans have been spoiled recently with fantastic flowing football. This was a sobering reminder that our squad may not have enough quality. Too many poor performances, dull football and zero goal threat with this much-changed line-up. Need to play a stronger team in the next European game. Still, you can't win them all and the season has been brilliant so far.

Steve: Disappointing, disjointed performance where if truth be told we were fortunate to have gained a point. But we move on, dust ourselves down and get ready for three very difficult matches in the next week.

Jerry: This was a nice opportunity to switch some things up and give some players playing time while focusing on the domestic table ahead against Liverpool. Brighton know they can eke into the play-off tournament so there is no urgency here.

Simon: Just like Tromso away we always struggle to break down park-the-bus teams. Some 26 shots and only four on target sums it up. Ran out of steam and almost lost it, so take a point and move on. Was mostly our second string anyway. Sunday will be different.

A new episode of BBC Radio Sussex's Albion Unlimited podcast is available to listen to and download now on BBC Sounds.

Johnny Cantor and former Seagulls defender Warren Aspinall react on the whistle in the Czech Republic after Thursday's goalless draw with Jablonec, plus, hear from fans.

"They will be very disapointed as a team," said Aspinall.

"They got the clean sheet but attacking-wise they were very poor. There was poor decision-making, poor shots on target.

"The fans behind the goal are delighted but, for me, you have to do much better in front of goal - 23 attempts and five on target is not good enough.

"It's like the balloon has been popped and all the air has come out of it."

Listen below or on BBC Sounds here - and don't forget to subscribe to get each episode into your My Sounds feed.

Explore all Brighton content on BBC Sounds

Listen to every Brighton game live on BBC Radio Sussex, with all the build-up and full commentary with Johnny Cantor and Warren Aspinall, and there is a full preview of all Seagulls' matches on Fridays at 18:00 in The Weekend Warm-up

Manchester United would likely have to pay a world record fee if they want to replace Michael Carrick with Fabian Hurzeler and prise the German away from Brighton. (Telegraph - subscription required), external

However, Hurzeler would not be interested in the United job if it became available. (Talksport), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Friday's full gossip column

Follow the gossip column on BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler speaking to TNT Sports: "We did not play on our highest level, Jablonec defended well and defend box well, good movement in transition. Overall not the result we wanted, but we have to keep going.

"If you play 0-0 then you didn't create enough, that's definitely something we have to get better at. We have to understand what it needs to play in this cup, understand we have to be brilliant at the basics. We weren't good at the basics today, that's something we have to improve."

On why his team couldn't find a way through: "Good defending, crosses not where we wanted to have them. The precision in the last action was missing, that's something we have to improve.

"The longer the game got, the more space they had to make transitions. We tried to push hard for scoring the goal and of course they had the space to make counter movements. In certain moments we were lucky.

"We always learn, I think it's important to take things away from this game and improve in the next game. There is no time for a lot of disappointment, we have to focus on the next game."

Whether you were at the game or following from elsewhere, we want to know what you learned.

Get in touch with your views here

Come back to this page on Friday to find a selection of your replies.

There are 18 games in both the Europa League and the Conference League on Thursday - with Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Sunderland involved in the former, and Brighton the latter - and BBC Sport will bring you every moment.

• Jablonev v Brighton (17:45)

• Lech Poznan v Sunderland (17:45)

• Besiktas v Crystal Palace

• Bournemouth v AC Milan

Kick-off times 20:00 BST unless stated. See the fixture list in full here

Follow all of the action and reaction here

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