Albion Analytics: Albion make it 300 Premier League appearances

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A milestone for Albion.

Liam Tharme

Albion Analytics

2025-05-02T06:00+01:00

With a 3-2 win over West Ham last weekend, Brighton and Hove Albion reached a milestone: 300 Premier League appearances.

Of the 51 teams to play in the competition, they are the 33rd (tied with Bournemouth) to hit this mark, while Brighton and Brentford are the only teams to be promoted into the Premier League and never be relegated from it.

That number of matches means Brighton are a more established Premier League club than Swansea, QPR, Birmingham and Portsmouth, and they will overtake Watford, Charlton, Wigan and Wimbledon FC (before they moved north and rebranded as Milton Keynes Dons in 2004).

Lewis Dunk has played in 265 of Albion's 300 Premier League games. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

The publicly-stated ambition to be an established top-ten Premier League side is being realised. This is the third campaign (after 2021/22 and 2022/23) where Brighton have broken 50 Premier League points, and just like in 2022/23, this term they have been a top-half side all season, and are on track for a third top-ten finish in the past four years. In fact, so consistent has the success been, that Brighton have not been in the relegation zone since August 2017 — in their debut Premier League season.

Across the 300 games, they have 91 wins, 97 draws and 112 defeats. In fact, no team has drawn more matches than Brighton in the Premier League since the start of 2018/19 (84), while 23 0-0s are the joint-most in the division in that time with Crystal Palace.

That can be viewed one of two ways, either as a necessity to win more games, or the strength of being hard to beat. With 12 draws and only nine defeats this season (top two Liverpool and Arsenal are the only teams to lose less) it certainly seems like the latter. It also means that Fabian Hurzeler (1.5) is on the highest points-per-game of any Brighton head coach in Premier League history in his debut campaign.

It was fitting that Albion played and beat West Ham in the milestone game, with them being their favourite opponent. It was a seventh win in 16 Premier League meetings between the sides, with Brighton only losing once (and 8 draws). They have taken 29 points from those matches, a total which likely would be enough to stay up this season and was sufficient last term.

That West Ham game was the fifth time Brighton have won a Premier League game with a goal in the 90th-minute or later, and the third such time this season: after 2-1 wins thanks to late Joao Pedro goals at home to Fulham and Manchester United, plus an Alexis Mac Allister late penalty at home to Manchester United in 2022/23, and Neal Maupay’s iconic last-minute winner versus Arsenal in 2019/20.

Raising their game against the top teams has been a fundamental part of Brighton’s consistency across 300 Premier League matches. Versus ‘Big Six’ opponents, they have earned at least ten points in four of their seven campaigns, with a best of 20 (6 wins, 2 draws, 4 defeats) in 2022/23 and are one win away from eclipsing that this term (18 points from 10 meetings, with 5 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeats, a home game against Liverpool and final day trip to Tottenham to come).

In total, since 2018/19, Brighton’s 23 wins and 84 points are the best of any team outside of the ‘Big Six’ against those opponents.

Danny Welbeck has scored nine Premier League goals so far this season. 📷 by James Boardman.

Further, they have made a strong habit of being comeback kings in recent seasons, ranking sixth overall since 2018/19 for points won from losing positions (86, from 150 deficits, winning 16 times and drawing 38 from behind) — with 17 points (4 wins, 5 draws and 9 defeats from 18 deficits) from behind this campaign, it is their best season in the Premier League for salvaging results.

They have set further club records this season too, winning six consecutive games in all competitions for the first time as a top-flight club when they beat Chelsea twice (one league, one cup), Southampton, Bournemouth, Newcastle and Fulham between the start of February and mid-March 2025.

Earlier this campaign, Danny Welbeck became Brighton’s outright all-time Premier League scorer (32, overtaking Pascal Gross with 30). With nine league goals this season, he is only one behind Joao Pedro in the race for the Albion golden boot, and it could be the first Premier League campaign ever that Brighton have two players finish in the double-digits for goals.