Skonto Rigga
Can they do a Leicester City? It’s probably way too early to be thinking in those terms but Brighton and Hove Albion’s superb, free-scoring start to the season continued on Sunday with a trouncing of Crystal Palace.
The Seagulls also banked a league-best fifth clean sheet of 2026/27 in doing so.
Here are our Scout Notes from the Amex.
ALL OVER IN A FLASH
This was a bit of a difficult game to analyse as it was all over within 10 minutes! Albion were 3-0 up at that point, and Palace were cooked.
The Eagles saw two efforts from substitutes hit the woodwork late on – a Jean-Philippe Mateta (£6.3m) sitter and a Jefferson Lerma (£4.8m) set-piece header – but those came at 4-0 down and were absolutely irrelevant to the outcome of the game.
Brighton were, and are, a joy to watch. Off the ball, they looked sharper, snapping into challenges and pressing hard even with the game long won. In possession, they played some lovely, quick stuff.
The variety of their goals is impressive, too. Goals one and five came from set pieces, the first deflecting in off a Palace head from a Pascal Gross (£6.1m) cross and the second turned in by sub Jack Hinshelwood (£5.9m).
Diego Gomez (£5.0m) then scored a worldie from halfway, before two open-play goals from Yasin Ayari (£5.4m) and Charalampos Kostoulas (£5.7m) put the game well beyond the Eagles. Ayari’s strike came from a particularly impressive passing sequence.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Seagulls fare in the next two tricky fixtures – and whether to play or bench Gross et al in Gameweeks 8 and 9 is a question we’ll be posing this week.
WHY NO GROSS GOAL?
Jaydee Canvot glances the ball into his own net and Brighton lead! 🔵 https://t.co/subm9ggwId
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 18, 2026
Gross had to make do with ‘only’ five points from this one. An assist for Brighton’s opener took him to nine attacking returns for the campaign.
So, why no goal for the veteran German, when his delivery was on target anyway before Jaydee Canvot (£4.8m) nodded past his own ‘keeper? The answer, so far as we can tell, seems to be event classifications and definitions. Gross’s free-kick was classed by Opta as a cross, rather than a shot. That differs from Morgan Rogers‘ (£7.9m) deflected goal – registered as a shot – in Gameweek 6, for instance.
Having said that, there is a (sort of) precedent from last season, when the Goals Accreditation Panel subsequently gave this goal to corner taker Noni Madueke (£6.2m)…
Noni’s delivery 💯 https://t.co/RYAxWxOGRp
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) February 1, 2026
Maxim De Cuyper (£5.2m) owners, similarly, had to content themselves with six points.
There was nothing wrong with his underlying numbers, at least. A total of four chances created was the most of anyone on show, and he was a whisker away from an assist for Luka Vuskovic (£5.1m).
Instead, it was Brighton’s FPL B-listers who took home the big rewards…
SUPPORTING CAST STAR
There was an irony in Gomez coming off the Goals Imminent table with his lowest-xG effort (0.0072!) of the campaign. His close-range finishing has been questionable, both this season and last, so maybe it was always going to be a screamer that ended his seven-month drought.
Interesingly, this isn’t the first time an Albion player has attempted a ‘Beckham’ this season…
Gomez is not the sexiest Brighton pick, sitting a lowly eighth in the Seagulls’ xG table this season, but he’s ticking over nicely, with a combination of assists and DefCons now helping him into the top 30 FPL points-scorers of 2026/27.
Fabian Hurzeler trusts him, too, starting him in 29 of the last 31 Premier League matchday squads he’s been available for – and the two benchings came off the back of injuries.
“Very pleased because like you mentioned, he’s a hard worker and he always puts team first. He always is ‘we’ rather than ‘me’ and therefore I know how desperately he wants to score goals. I know how desperatelu he wants to get involved into scoring and having an assist.” – Fabian Hurzeler on Diego Gomez
Ayari meanwhile is benefitting, temporarily at least, from Chema Andres‘ (£5.5m) arrival. Since Andres’ first start in Gameweek 5, Ayari has been pushed higher up the pitch – as you can see in his weekly penalty box touch count below:
With Hinshelwood back fit, of course, you’ll always be sceptical about his medium-term minutes.
As for Kostoulas, there were similar reservations about him with Georginio Rutter (£5.3m) available again. The young Greek striker is in a rich vein of form, however, and the current status quo (Kostoulas getting 70-ish minutes and then midweek off) is agreeable.
Liverpool and Man City away is probably not the time to buy Brighton assets anew, so Gameweek 10 is maybe a better time to re-evaluate the teenage forward.
VUSKOVIC FURTHERS HIS CASE
If it wasn’t for De Cuyper’s ‘out of position’ exploits, it’s a fair bet that Vuskovic would be in a lot more FPL squads.
Delivering DefCon points for the fourth time in five Gameweeks, he nearly grabbed a goal from De Cuyper’s corner; at least he had the consolation of an assist when Hinshelwood gobbled up the rebound.
That was one of three shots Vuskovic had, and he’s now FPL’s leading defender for goal attempts (13).
The Croat gets about the pitch in open play, too. He popped up on the right wing here, providing a superb ball that Kostoulas nearly finished off.
As we’ve said in recent weeks, he remains the pick of Brighton’s defenders for the long, long term, taking into account the threat that De Cuyper will eventually face from Messrs Minteh and Mitoma.
PALACE POOR
Palace fluked a win over Nottingham Forest last weekend but there was to be no luck-riding here.
Their defence remains the Achilles heel:
| Total | Rank v other clubs | |
|---|---|---|
| Shots conceded | 125 | 20th |
| Shots in the box conceded | 87 | 20th |
| Big chances conceded | 23 | 17th= |
| Goals conceded | 17 | 20th |
| Expected goals conceded (xGC) | 14.81 | 20th |
It’s not even like their schedule has been that bad, either. Forest, Leeds United, Fulham, Everton and Ipswich Town have already been and gone in Gameweeks 1-7.
Some encouragement for disillusioned owners of Newcastle United’s attackers ahead of the two clubs’ Gameweek 8 meeting, then?
In the thinnest of thin consolations at the back, Chris Richards (£4.9m) hit the DefCon threshold again. No FPL defender has more DefCon points (10) this season – but a dearth of clean sheets means he’s still only averaging 2.9 points per match.
