Coventry vs Brighton Preview
Coventry lose matches and have been unthreatening since promotion to the Premier League. Brighton are a strong team and can keep their good form rolling with a league victory.
Coventry on a 3 Match Losing Streak
- Coventry have lost their last 3 matches.
- Coventry have lost 2 of their last 3 games against Brighton.
- Brighton have won 5 of their last 8 games.
H2H - Seagulls Advantage
Brighton have a 28-19 advantage against Coventry, alongside 23 draws.
Coventry Lacking EPL Quality
Coventry are bottom of the Premier League and have lost all three matches this season. The Midlands team are goalless and have conceded five.
Frank Lampard’s outfit lost 3-0 at Arsenal in their opening Premier League game. Coventry had 0.2 XG and one shot on target.
The Sky Blues then beat Plymouth 4-2 away before a 1-0 home league loss against newly promoted Hull.
Lampard’s side fell to consecutive defeats following a 1-0 loss at Man City. Coventry allowed 2.12 XG, had just 22% possession and conceded in the first half.
Brighton Tough to Beat
Fabian Hurzeler’s Brighton are in solid recent form and have lost just once in their previous eight, winning five.
The Seagulls were on a six-match unbeaten run, including five victories. Brighton capped that streak with 4-0 wins against Aston Villa and Tromso.
The south coast side’s unbeaten run ended with a 4-3 defeat at Chelsea. Hurzeler’s team had 74% possession and 15 shots at Stamford Bridge.
Brighton held Leeds to a 1-1 Premier League draw at the Amex on Saturday. They conceded in the first half, hit back with 2.2 XG and Luka Vuskovic levelled in the 71st minute.
Predicted Starting Lineups & Team News
Coventry (5-4-1): Carl Rushworth; Milan van Ewijk, Bobby Thomas, Aurele Amenda, Ethan Pinnock, Jay Dasilva; Jack Rudoni, Caleb Yirenkyi, Matt Grimes, Ephron Mason-Clark; Taiwo Awoniyi
Midfielder Josh Eccles, forward Haji Wright and defenders Kaine Kesler-Hayden and Luke Woolfenden are injured. Frank Lampard provided a pre-match update on the injured Coventry players and said:
“Josh Eccles is not fit yet, Kaine [Kesler-Hayden] will not be back yet, hopefully he'll be back for around international break time to start training, Wolfy [Luke Woolfenden] the same and Haji [Wright] is longer term.”
Brighton (4-2-3-1): Bart Verbruggen; Ferdi Kadioglu, Luka Vuskovic, Lewis Dunk, Olivier Boscagli; Pascal Gross, Yasin Ayari; Diego Gomez, Malick Yalcouye, Maxim De Cuyper; Charalampos Kostoulas
Midfielder Jack Hinshelwood and defender Mats Wieffer won’t feature due to injury.
Forwards Kaoru Mitoma, Yankuba Minteh, Evan Ferguson, Stefanos Tzimas and Zadok Yohanna are ruled out through injury.
Georginio Rutter is in contention to return after a recent foot injury. Fabian Hurzeler confirmed the attacker’s likely availability for Coventry and said:
“He definitely should be close. He had a small setback but he was on the (training) pitch now, so hopefully he’s available for the weekend if nothing goes wrong."