Reigning Europa League winners Aston Villa travel to the Amex Stadium to begin their campaign against a Brighton side looking to avoid a third consecutive Premier League defeat.
Brighton enter the new season 16th in the table with everything to play for after finishing 8th last term. Fabian Hurzeler’s side comes into this opener following a grueling midweek trip to Norway, where they played out a 0-0 draw against Tromso in their Conference League debut. Despite that stalemate, the Seagulls showed strong pre-season form with high-scoring wins over Strasbourg and Roma.
Aston Villa start the season in 2nd place and are firmly in the title conversation after Unai Emery led them to European silverware last season. However, momentum has stalled recently; the Villans suffered four defeats in their last five outings, including a narrow 2-1 loss to Paris Saint-Germain in the European Super Cup and consecutive 2-1 friendly defeats to Bayern Munich and Borussia Monchengladbach.
How the public market prices this match, shown next to our model. For context only — it never changes a signal.
Elo is overall team strength. xG is the goals an average team would score from the same chances.
One strength number built from every result a team has had. Higher means stronger.
Aston Villa are the stronger side — 79 rating points clear of Brighton.
xG = goals an average team would score from the same chances. Scoring well above xG means clinical finishing (or a hot streak).
Per-game averages this season. Use the buttons to split the goals by venue.
Both teams across every game this season.
Whole season, home and away combined — Brighton 5 games, Aston Villa 5 games.
Premier League (England) standings · both teams highlighted in context.