Heartbreaking:Fabian Hürzeler signs his resignation letter and refused coaching for Brighton due to…
Fabian Hurzeler had an extra day to finalise his Brighton XI for tomorrow’s visit of Brentford. There were eight Boxing Day fixtures in the English top flight yesterday, with Brighton vs Brentford one of two Premier League fixtures today, December 27.
The Seagulls, who were 10th in the table at the start of Boxing Day, will be determined to return to winning ways after their 1-1 draw at West Ham on December 21. Brighton do have injury concerns to £25m midfielder Mats Wieffer who hobbled off in the second half at the London Stadium, just minutes after scoring his first goal for Brighton following his summer move from Feyenoord. Jan Paul van Hecke will also be assessed after he sustained a head injury in the first half of the draw at West Ham. Hurzeler must also decide if Brajan Gruda will keep his place in the starting XI after the German made his full Premier League debut at the Hammers.
Friday’s first encounter brought a surprising 0-0 between Brighton and Brentford. The first half quickly became a sequence of Julio Enciso (£5.4m) shots and Mark Flekken (£4.5m) saves. Brighton’s attacking midfielder made his first league start of the season and racked up a huge eight shots in those first 45 minutes alone. No player has exceeded this throughout any entire 2024/25 match.
A few of these were on target and fairly straightforward for highly-selected stopper Flekken but, combined with keeping out a Brajan Gruda (£5.4m) free kick and low Matt O’Riley (£5.5m) strike, he’d already saved six attempts by the 30th minute.
However, that was the moment when the Dutchman asked for some treatment on his knee. He couldn’t last longer and needed replacing by Hakon Valdimarsson (£3.9m), whose 54 minutes weren’t enough for clean sheet points.
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