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Brighton & Hove Albion v Aston Villa
This match has not been played. Everything below is pre-match editorial published on 2026-08-14; there is no result, lineup or statistic to report yet. Team news is only shown where a club or official source has confirmed it.
Fabian Hürzeler’s Brighton host Unai Emery’s Aston Villa in a meeting of two comparatively settled teams.
Brighton finished eighth and qualified for the Conference League; Villa finished fourth and reached the Champions League again.
Aston Villa hold the advantage, and it has been consistent rather than historical. Counts vary by window — one source has 19 meetings with Villa winning 11, Brighton 2 and 6 drawn — but the recent pattern is what matters here.
In the last five meetings Villa have won three, Brighton one, with one draw. Brighton's win in that run came in May 2024 and is their only victory over Villa in that span.
The scorelines have been unusually open for a fixture between two organised sides. Villa's 6-1 win in September 2023 sits just outside the last five, and a 3-4 in December 2025 produced seven goals. This has not been a cagey fixture.
- Aston Villa 1-0 Brighton & Hove Albion — Premier League, February 2026.
- Brighton & Hove Albion 3-4 Aston Villa — Premier League, December 2025. Seven goals, and Villa winning away.
- Brighton & Hove Albion 0-3 Aston Villa — Premier League, April 2025.
- Aston Villa 2-2 Brighton & Hove Albion — Premier League, December 2024.
- Brighton & Hove Albion 1-0 Aston Villa — Premier League, May 2024. Brighton's only win in this run.
- Sources agree on all five scorelines and the order; months are given where exact dates differ between aggregators.
Last season's league record, as a baseline rather than a prediction.
Brighton & Hove Albion finished 8th in 2025/26 on 53 points (14W 11D 13L, 52 scored, 46 conceded). Aston Villa finished 4th in 2025/26 on 65 points (19W 8D 11L, 56 scored, 49 conceded).
BRYME is not publishing home-only and away-only splits for these sides yet. Those figures exist but have not been reconciled against an official source here, and a split quoted from memory is exactly the kind of number that quietly becomes wrong. The overall records above are verified against the final 2025/26 table; the home and away breakdowns will be added when sourced.
Provisional: Brighton and Villa both carried multiple fitness concerns that require confirmation closer to the match.
No suspensions affecting either side have been confirmed for this fixture at the time of writing.
This is a statement about what has been confirmed, not a guarantee that both squads are fully available. Bans carried over from last season and any late disciplinary decisions are checked again on matchday, and this section is updated if that changes.
Villa’s compact transition game has historically been effective against Brighton’s possession approach.
The supplied research identifies Villa’s strong record against Brighton, including at the Amex.
Villa finished 4th on 65 points and qualified for the Champions League; Brighton finished 8th on 53 and go into the Conference League play-off round. Twelve points, four places.
Brighton's case is that the gap in goal difference was far narrower than the gap in points — +6 against +7 — which is usually the signature of a side that lost tight matches rather than one that was outplayed. Villa's 56 goals scored were the fewest of any side in the top five. A home crowd and a European qualifier that did not overwhelm anyone is a reasonable platform.
The specific head-to-head trend gives Villa the edge despite the fixture’s close overall quality.
Brighton & Hove Albion 1–2 Aston Villa
Sources: 2025–26 Premier League final table (Wikipedia) · NBC Sports — Premier League 2025-26 final table · Brighton v Aston Villa head-to-head (AiScore)