Dreaming of the Champions League – Brighton have taken the Premier League by storm in 2025

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Unbeaten in seven 

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It says a lot about how much has changed in the Premier League over the course of the last 12 months that Brighton were left cursing their luck and the apparent misfortune of dropping two points as they walked off the pitch at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday. Prior to going behind 11 minutes into the match due to a Erling Haaland penalty, the Seagulls initially had a goal ruled out but persevered throughout the match to battle back to a level score twice. Over the course of the game, the visitors had 15 shots to Man City’s 11 and had a number of opportunities to even take the lead late on in the second half. 

“Overall, I am happy with the performance, but not happy with the result,” said Brighton head coach Fabian Hürzeler at full time. “It is very obvious for me and clear that we should leave this pitch as a winner. Sometimes in football it’s like this. We have to analyse this game and then we should be disappointed about the draw.” However, the manager’s frustrations weren’t enough to blind him to the club’s impressive run of form, with Brighton now unbeaten in their last seven games in all competitions. “This club always works hard,” added the 32-year-old tactician. “We have a situation with the run after the [Nottingham] Forest game. It is because we’re doing the basics right. We have to keep doing it for the rest of the season.”

Brighton’s late push for the Champions League

Indeed, while the 2-2 draw with Man City may have been seen as two points dropped by Hürzeler & Co., it still makes over a month since Brighton last lost a game. Alongside beating Norwich, Chelsea and Newcastle in the FA Cup, Brighton have also picked up wins over Fulham, Bournemouth, Southampton and the aforementioned Stamford Bridge side in the Premier League. In fact, aside from a peculiar 7-0 defeat to Forest in early February and a narrow defeat to David Moyes’ renewed Everton side a week earlier, Brighton have been one of English football’s most impressive clubs in 2025. As we can see in the table above,when it comes to league points won in 2025 only two clubs can lay claim to more than Hürzeler’s side. In their last 10 league games, Brighton have picked up a total of 22 points, bested only by Arsenal (22 points in 11 games) and Liverpool (25 points in 11 games), and seen their standing in the English top-flight improve from tenth in the table to seventh, where they now sit just one point off the top five and a potential spot in the Champions League next season.  

The return of Brighton’s young stars

While Brighton’s goals at the weekend came from an outstanding free-kick from Pervis Estupiñán and an unfortunate own goal from Man City defender Abdukodir Khusanov, the result and indeed the club’s improved form in recent months has been down to the return of a number of young stars to Hürzeler’s starting XI. In a defensive sense, 19-year-old star Jack Hinshelwood has returned from a nasty knee injury to either slot in at defensive midfield or at right back in both the Premier League and FA Cup ties, becoming a key tactical cog in Hürzeler’s Brighton machine. But it has perhaps been in attack that we’ve really seen Brighton look back to their best. 

In the first 13 games of the year Hürzeler’s side have scored 27 goals, with no less than 19 goals in 10 league games in the Premier League. Only three clubs in the English top-flight have scored more and much of that is down to the return of forward players Georginio Rutter and Yankuba Minteh to the club’s starting XI. In Rutter’s case, the French talent bagged goals in league games against Ipswich, Manchester United and Southampton, alongside an assist in the 2-1 win over Bournemouth, but most notably contributed three goals and an assist in the club’s three FA Cup ties in this calendar year. Similarly, Minteh has started seven of Brighton’s last eight league games and picked up three goals and two assists in that time. And, like Rutter, he has proved to be particularly useful in the FA Cup, where he bagged an assist against Norwich and a goal against Newcastle.