Are free-scoring Brighton genuine title contenders?
Brighton & Hove Albion beat Crystal Palace 5-0 in the A23 derby in the Premier League on Sunday, completing a fourth straight league victory. Jack Hinshelwood's volley wrapped up the win and that run has an aggregate scoreline of 15-0.
Diego Gomez put Brighton two up with a strike from the halfway line in the seventh minute of the derby, underlining the side's attacking threat. Fabian Hurzeler's team combine entertaining forward play with defensive solidity: no team in the division has scored more goals and no team has conceded fewer. After seven games Brighton sit third on 16 points behind reigning champions Arsenal and table-toppers Manchester City, who have a 100% record.
Match of the Day pundit Dion Dublin, who played in Manchester United's 1992-93 title-winning side, said of Brighton: "Because what we've seen of them this season is just togetherness, harmony... the manager's making good decisions. "[Pascal] Gross is leading the line in regards to what goes on on the pitch and what is the right kind of way they want to play. And everybody's chipping in with goals. The look a very, very frightening team at the moment."
Brighton lost top scorer Joao Pedro to Chelsea in the summer of 2025, and this year Danny Welbeck also moved to Chelsea, yet the club's recruitment model has produced a promising replacement. Charalampos Kostoulas, used primarily as a substitute last season, has been trusted to lead the line this campaign; the 19-year-old has three league goals and two assists. Only Lamine Yamal has more goal involvements among teenagers in Europe's top five leagues this season.
Hinshelwood is supported by a broad group of contributors including Yasin Ayari, Malick Yalcouye and Maxim de Cuyper, with Pascal Gross operating from a deeper position. Brighton already have 11 league scorers while benefiting from three own goals, and they lead the division for shots on target while sitting second for xG, shots and big chances. In the top five European leagues only Barcelona, with 39 goals from nine La Liga matches, have scored more domestic league goals than Brighton.
The Seagulls have coped defensively despite the departures of centre-back Jan Paul van Hecke and midfield anchor Carlos Baleba, with Luka Vuskovic, signed from Tottenham Hotspur, helping the side record a league-high five clean sheets and remain unbeaten at home. There have been only seven previous occasions of a team scoring 23 or more goals after seven Premier League games; all but one of those teams finished in the top three, with Manchester City winning the title in 2011-12 and 2022-23, while Kevin Keegan's 1994-95 Newcastle United side were the outlier and finished sixth.
Alan Wares, co-host of the Albion Roar podcast, said: "I think with the Premier League being seven games in and the other matches we've already played, I think the dream for us is sustainability. I wouldn't go for a target, just as high as possible," and added: "The club is really wanting to qualify for Champions League at the end of the season but yes, we've made a good start - are we title contenders? It's way too early to consider that. I would say that, at the moment, is fantasy stuff. But every football fan's got to have their dream and our point is, why not? "If we can continue this, and that is the main point we've got to look at, if we can be sustainable in what we're doing and what we achieve, then yes. Why not? Go for the sky, see what happens." He also noted the club faces Conference League fixtures to juggle, and the article cites Leicester City's position of eighth with 12 points after seven games in their 2015-16 title season as a comparative example.
Brighton travel to Manchester City's Etihad Stadium on Halloween, one of four successive away matches in all competitions, and the league table could look different by the November international break depending on upcoming results and outstanding matters such as Manchester City's ongoing appeal over the independent commission's findings into breaches of Premier League financial rules.