Brighton hope to bounce back at Cardiff City

Brighton travel to Cardiff City hoping to recover from a disappointing 3-1 defeat at the hands of Everton last time out.

Richarlison proved to be the thorn in the side for the likes of Shane Duffy and Lewis Dunk as he scored a brace at Goodison Park, ending the three game winning streat The Seagulls had amassed.

Cardiff on the other hand have just one win all season, a 4-2 victory against bottom side Fulham. Since then they have been on the recieving end of a 4-1 thumping by Liverpool and last week lost an emotionally charged game against Leicester City.

Chris Hughton has a few injury concerns for Brighton. Long-term absentee Pascal Gross is yet to fully fit whilst fellow midfielder Davy Propper continues to fight an ankle problem. Record signing Alireza Jahanbakhsh is also struggling with an injury, none are expected back until the end of November.

Neil Warnock also has injury worries, but midfielder Joe Ralls is set to be in the squad. The Cardiff manager said, “Ralls is training, he’s been out with this knee problem and he’s eligible to come in on Saturday. He’s not been able to do any training until this week. He’s a fit lad and he had a tough day yesterday and we’ll see how he is. He’ll definitely be in the squad on Saturday.”

Missing for Cardiff though will be: Kenneth Zohore, Jazz Richards, Lee Peltier and Nathan Mendez-Laing. None are expected back until early December.

Goals may be at a premium in this early fixture, of the last five meetings between these teams, only once has more than two goals been scored. The promotion winning season for Brighton saw them win 1-0 at home and draw 0-0 away against a then struggling Cardiff City in the Championship.

Brighton will be looking to Glenn Murray to get them the goals to win this time around though, with six goals this season he is the seventh top-scorer in the league. Calum Paterson leads the charts for Neil Warnocks side, the Cardiff City man has just the two goals this season though.

This is a big game for both sides, Brighton want to keep the relegation battle at arms length whilst Cardiff are desperate to climb out of that pack. Warnock will be hoping home advantage, coupled with Brightons poor away record, is enough to bring home all three points.

Prediction – Cardiff 1-1 Brighton

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