Full Time
Brighton beat Crystal Palace 5-0 at the Amex in Matchweek 7, and the game was more or less over before most people had found their seats. Jaydee Canvot turned a cross into his own net in the 4th minute, Diego Gómez struck from the halfway line in the 7th and Yasin Ayari made it 3-0 by the 10th; Charalampos Kostoulas and Jack Hinshelwood added the rest after the break. Palace's best moment was a Jean-Philippe Mateta shot off the bar, and their manager Pierre Sage admitted his side keep starting games too slowly. That lifts Brighton to 16 points and up to 2nd, behind only Manchester City, while Palace stay stuck in the middle of the table on 8 points after a day to forget.
Pre-match Talking Points
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1Matchweek 7, and the stakes are lopsided. Brighton are third on 13 points, behind only Manchester City and Arsenal, and a win keeps them in the conversation for the top four. Crystal Palace are ninth on 8 points with a goal difference of minus one, so this is a chance to prove the mid-table wobble is just a wobble. It's a south-coast-versus-south-London grudge too, so bragging rights are on the table.
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2This is the M23 derby, a rivalry that goes back decades and has never really calmed down, helped by the fact the two clubs are a short drive apart. Palace fans will tell you it matters more to them than to Brighton. Brighton fans will smile politely and then win the game. Do not take a side in the pub.
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3Watch Jean-Philippe Mateta, Palace's centre-forward, who is in contention but waiting on a final fitness check. He is the kind of striker who scores while looking mildly annoyed about it, and Palace's goals tend to run through him. If he starts, Brighton's defence has a proper job on. If he doesn't, Palace have a much quieter afternoon.
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4The subplot is the injury list. Brighton are still without Kaoru Mitoma, Yankuba Minteh and Mats Wieffer, which is a lot of creativity on the sidelines, although Lewis Dunk is back from a neck problem. Palace have their own gaps, with Axel Disasi suspended and Ben Chilwell missing recent games, and they have a new man in the dugout in Pierre Sage. Team sheets at about midday will tell you who is actually fit.
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5The hook: Brighton have already beaten Arsenal 3-0 this season, which is not the sort of result you can fake. Palace arrive off a 3-1 win over Nottingham Forest, but also a 3-2 defeat at Lyon in Europe, so their week has been all over the place. If Brighton win this comfortably, you can legitimately say they are title-race adjacent. Say it with confidence and nobody will check.
Team Talking Points
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1Brighton are second in the Premier League going into the international break, with 22 points from 10 games. They've also got the best goal difference in the division at +19 – better even than leaders Arsenal's +10. Drop that stat and you'll sound like you've been reading the small print.
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2Last weekend they beat Brentford 2-0 at the Amex. Diego Gómez opened the scoring with a long-range screamer on his weaker foot, and Pascal Gross – back at the club and still pinging them in – added a penalty just before half-time.
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3The defence is the quiet story. That was their seventh clean sheet of the season and their fourth in five home league games. For a team usually praised for pretty football, they've become surprisingly hard to score against.
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4Fabian Hurzeler, still one of the youngest managers in the league, is having the best spell of his time at the club. Earlier in the season Brighton also thrashed newly promoted Coventry 5-0 – a result that set the tone for the whole autumn.
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5Next up is a trip to Hull on Sunday 22 November, then the fixtures get tougher. Brighton fans are cautiously excited – being five points behind Arsenal in second is uncharted territory, so let them enjoy it without saying the words 'title race' too loudly.
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Top thing to say down the pub
Best goal difference in the league and seven clean sheets already – Brighton aren't just the pretty-football side any more, they're properly hard to beat.
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Avoid saying
"Brighton always sell their best players, they'll fall away" – yes, they sell well, and yet here they are second in the table. It's the business model working, not a weakness, and Brighton fans are very tired of explaining that.
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1Palace go into the international break bottom of the Premier League after a 3-1 home defeat to Liverpool on Sunday. Eddie Nketiah's stoppage-time penalty was a consolation, not a comeback. Being bottom in November isn't fatal, but it is the sort of thing fans prefer you don't mention first.
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2Manager Pierre Sage is under serious pressure, and the reports this week say his time could be up. Former Brentford and Spurs boss Thomas Frank is the bookies' favourite to replace him, with The Telegraph naming him as the frontrunner. Nothing's official yet, so 'I hear Frank's in the frame' sounds well-informed, while 'Sage has gone' might be a bit premature.
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3This slump has been building. A 5-0 hammering by Brighton a few weeks ago is the result Palace fans really don't want to relive, mostly because it was Brighton, their fiercest rivals. If you bring it up, expect a long stare.
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4There were glimmers against Liverpool. Jørgen Strand Larsen had a goal chalked off for offside by VAR and Yeremy Pino hit the crossbar, so it wasn't a total surrender. Palace fans will tell you the margins have gone against them, and on Sunday they had a point.
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5Don't forget this is the club that won the FA Cup in 2025, their first major trophy ever. Going from Wembley glory to the bottom of the table in about 18 months is a very Premier League kind of whiplash. Mention the Cup win and you'll cheer up any Palace fan instantly.
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Top thing to say down the pub
Whoever ends up in the Palace dugout, the first job is just stopping the leaks. They're not as bad as the table says, but they're getting close.
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Avoid saying
"Just bring Roy Hodgson back again" — it's been said as a joke so many times that Palace fans have stopped laughing, and the man has done his bit for the club twice over already.