Can We Win at Bogey Team Brighton?

After what seems like an age the Premier League returns this weekend when we take on Brighton at the Amex Stadium at 3pm on Saturday.

Calling Brighton a bogey team is an understatement; we haven't won there since 2017 in a Championship match where Newcastle won 2-1, with Mo Diame and Ayoze Perez scoring late goals.

Since then we've played Brighton six times away without a win; two wins for Brighton and four draws. We need to break that duck... but Brighton's home form is formidable.

Crystal Palace were the last team to win there in December 2024. That's six months of Premier League games without a home defeat. I haven't checked but my bet would be that's the best unbeaten home run in the Premiership. So, a Newcastle United win would break two records. Brighton's first home defeat in six months, and our first first win after six failures.

The Toon are looking to make it fours wins in a row...

After a tough start to the season when goals were hard to come by the lads have hit their stride with three wins on the bounce from games against USG, Bradford and Nottingham Forest. Ten goals scored with only one conceded in those games is a real confidence booster.

Brighton have already conceded ten goals to our five so they are vulnerable and one of the big, literally, battles will be between Nick Woltemade and Van Hecke. Big Nick is in a goal scoring streak and he is 9/4 with the bookies to get another on Saturday. Don't best against it!

Eddie has decisions to make again on selection...

Although it's been two weeks since our last game we've had players away on international duty, and no two further away than Bruno and Joelinton who have doubled their Air Miles with energy sapping flights to and from South Korea and Japan, .Will they both be selected?

The in-form Gordon is sure to get the LW spot but who plays RW, Jacob Murphy or Anthony Elanga? It's still early days but Elanga needs a few stand out performances, similar to those Anthony Gordon produced after an iffy start to his Toon career, to show he is a step up on Murphy and worth his £55M fee.

Nick Pope will start in goal but who will play in the back four in front of him?

This is where, IMO, Eddie has his biggest team selection decisions to make both short and medium term. Sven Botman, for me, has to start and that means either Dan Burn continuing at LB or being dropped for Lewis Hall. Both are tough decisions. With Tino Livramento still injured Kieran Trippier will be RB.

At RCB, Malik Thiaw hasn't put a foot wrong, whether to bring Fabian Schar back in is another big and tough call for Eddie Howe. Rotation is good in principle, but defence is one area of the team where consistency definitely helps to produce better performances.

Match Prediction...

Another win would break our Brighton bogey, keep our win run going and see us well into the top ten. Brighton are a team who like to retain possession and press high up the pitch but that gives us the option to play to our strength; hitting teams hard on the break.

Coping with Woltemade will be a big concern of Hurzeler and I expect him to face the physical attention of Van Hecke, a player who I rate but one who can be over enthusiastic and reckless in the tackle. Big Nick's trickery could well lead to a yellow or even red card.

I'm going for a 2-0 win and I fully expect us to try and dominate the game from the off and deny Brighton the controlling possession that they will try and impose.

Comments welcome.

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