Fulham vs. Brighton -2025 Premier Leauge Opener

Fulham's 2025 Premier League campaign gets started down at the Amex against Brighton. The match will be on USA with kickoff at 10am EDT.

The big story for Fulham is the lack of transfers. No new outfield players have come in. Silva and the fan base are incredibly frustrated with the lack of additions. However, Fulham have not had any significant departures so the squad is relatively unchanged. There also seem to have been some positive developments - Josh King is playing a bigger role, Wilson appears better than ever, and Fulham's production from set pieces have been much better. So what does this mean for where Fulham goes from last season? Saturday's performance could provide some clarity.

The big concern for Fulham is that Robinson is still not available after recovering from surgery. We had all hoped he'd be ready to go by this point, but we'll have to continue to wait. I expect the lineup to be the same as what faced Eintracht Frankfurt. The back line had Tete, Andersen, Bassey, and Sessegnon. The midfield was Berge, Lukic, and King with Wilson and Iwobi on the wings. Then Raul was up top. I won't be surprised if Smith Rowe gets the start over King, but I really hope it is King who starts. King has been the most exciting part of Fulham's summer and I think he deserves to get the start.

Prediction? I'll say a 2-1 loss with a late winner from Brighton - just like Fulham's last match there since nothing much has changed.

 

What has Brighton done over the summer?

Joao Pedro is gone. Pervis Estupinian is gone. Evan Ferguson is gone.

It looks like they’ve spent around $80 million on a handful of players, but I don’t think any of the moves were splashy (I don’t recognize any of them - but that’s probably not saying much).

Fulham’s squad will be comfortable knowing the other players around them and Silva’s strategy. I’m thinking this leads to an early Fulham lead that the team can’t hold on to. I hate to predict dropped points from the outset, but last year’s result are still fairly fresh. I will up @MicahMan’s prediction by a point though and say the match ends in a draw.

I’m super excited to break out my jersey and start a new season. COYW!

 

Well... that was interesting.


I'll have to watch this on replay tomorrow, (I had already committed to a big end of summer painting project before realizing I couldn't watch the match at home ) but that seemed like a another poor offensive showing from Fulham. Two shots on goal, and did they both come in injury time?? Berge's challenge was pretty sloppy and it was a deserved penalty. It was unfortunate especially because it didn't seem like Brighton could do much offensively either.

But a draw on the road against Brighton is better than a stick in the eye! Somebody at Fulham please get Muniz a Premier League contract!

 

Sadly it appears that NBC has reverted back to their policy of not showing replays on Peacock of USA Network matches. This makes me grumpy. I feel like it was that way two years ago, but I thought they went back to showing them last season after a 24 hour delay.

 

I'll get the obvious out of the way first. Burn the kits! Just send them to the archive and never bring them out again.

While not boring, the match wasn't very entertaining either. From a Fulham fan perspective, I felt a good bit of frustration as the team (unsurprisingly) employed the same possession based tactics that rarely threaten the opposition's goal. I didn't see any of the behind the back line attempts that Wilson scored a couple of preseason goals with. Fulham's press was a bit lacking as well. Though I'm not sure if that's because King was in that role and the coaching staff wanted him to concentrate elsewhere.

Speaking of King, he looked fantastic on the ball. He was working so well on the left with Iwobi at the outset, that I almost forgot Wilson was out there too. Speaking of the left, Fulham really need Robinson or Sessegnon healthy. Bassey held his own, but you could tell that it was not his natural position and Cuenca just isn't as good of a passer.

Two other quick hits. King definitely got kicked in the back of the leg in the box in the 64th minute. Where was VAR?


Lastly, Marco definitely seemed to be targeting someone with his celebration after Muniz's goal. He immediately turned toward either the fourth official or the Brighton bench (away from the goal). I wonder what that was about.

P.S. @MicahMan I'm seeing the replay on Peacock. You should check again.

 

I definitely agree on the kits. We were so poor on attack the fact we had a couple quality chances in the last couple minutes was mind blowing. In a way it kind of felt like a win to grab a point after playing so blah.

 

Love the kits! Let's wear them for every match, home and away.

We played a solid team, and I'm not displeased with a point. The officiating was meh. On another day, we could have had two PKs, but a draw was a fair result.

King impressed me. I hope he learns from Carvalho's and Roberts' mistakes and sticks around, instead of jumping too early to a "bigger" club. Muniz is at a super-low wage (by Prem standards), and I think if Fulham offered him a decent contract, we would stay. He seems happy at the club.