Manchester United opened the curtain on a surprisingly successful season at Brighton this afternoon.
Few United fans expected to qualify for the Champions League when the club struggled under Ruben Amorim but the arrival of Michael Carrick in January changed that.
Carrick has won 11 of his 16 games in charge and, earlier this week, was appointed as the new manager on a two-year deal.
United are guaranteed to finish third but it is not yet known where Brighton will finish. The Seagulls need a win to secure a place in next season’s European competition. Victory will at least guarantee a Europa League place although various concessions involving Bournemouth, Liverpool and Aston Villa could see them eventually qualify for the Champions League.
101 Great Goals has team news from Amex.
Brighton Team News
Brighton are without midfielder Kaoru Mitoma due to a hamstring injury which will keep him out of the World Cup.
Adam Webster and Stefanos Tzimas (both knees) were also forgotten.
Brighton: Verbruggen; Wieffer, Dunk, Van Hecke, Kadioglu; De Cuyper, Milner, Hinshelwood, Gomez, Gross; Welbeck
Manchester United Team News
Benjamin Sesko and Matthijs de Ligt are two absent from United.
Manchester United: Lammens; Mazraoui, Maguire, Martinez, Shaw; Mount, Mainoo, Fernandes, Dorgu, Diallo, Mbeumo
Where to watch Brighton v Manchester United: TV and online streaming
Brighton v Manchester United kicks off at 4:00pm. It will be broadcast on Sky Sports Tennis and will be available to stream on Sky Go.
If you’re watching from outside the UK, click HERE for details of channels showing the game in your area.
Brighton v Manchester United stats
- Brighton have the highest win rate against United of any side in Premier League history overall (47% – 8/17) and at home (63% – 5/8).
- United are looking to complete a double over Brighton for the first time since 2020-21, despite losing six of their eight league games against the Seagulls (W2).
- None of the 17 Premier League meetings between Brighton (win 8) and United (win 9) have been drawn, the most played games in the competition to never end in a tie.
- Brighton have lost their final league game in five of their eight seasons in the Premier League (W3), including a 2-0 home defeat by United in 2023-24.
- Only Arsenal (24) have won their last Premier League game of the season more often than United (23), while the Red Devils have lost the last few matches of any team to compete in at least 20 campaigns (4).
- Brighton are looking to win four home games in a row for the first time in the top flight; it is the seventh time they have won three in a row at home at this level, losing their next five of the last six (D1 – v Swansea in October 1982).
- Carrick has the best average points per game of any manager in the Premier League this season (2.25 – P16 W11 D3 L2). It is the best by any United manager in a league season since Alex Ferguson’s last campaign in 2012-13 (2.34) – a season in which Carrick played 36 times for the Red Devils, many of them in their top-flight campaign.
- In his career in English football, there is no club where Brighton’s Danny Welbeck has scored more goals in all competitions than his former club United (8). It will be his 400th Premier League game if he plays in this match, the 46th player to reach this milestone.
- No team has United’s Bryan Mbeumo scored more goals in the Premier League than he did against Brighton (5 goals, 3 assists), and these eight came in his last five games against the Seagulls.
