Brighton vs Crystal Palace: Third-Placed Brighton Host 12th-Placed Palace After Pascal Struijk's Red Card Is Rescinded

Brighton vs Crystal Palace kickoff time and how to watch

• UK: 14:00 BST on Sunday 18 October 2026, live on Sky Sports according to Sky Sports' match page.
• US: 9:00 a.m. ET and 6:00 a.m. PT on Peacock, as listed by ESPN.
• Venue: the American Express Stadium in Falmer, Brighton's home ground.

Form and the table

Brighton have 13 points from six games: four wins, one draw and one defeat. Their 18 goals are the most in the league, their goal difference of +13 is the best, and their four clean sheets are more than any other club has kept. Manchester City lead on 18 points after six wins from six, Arsenal are second on 15, and Brighton are three points clear of Brentford, Everton and Chelsea.

Brighton's last five league games, oldest first, were a 4-3 defeat at Chelsea, a 1-1 draw at home to Leeds United and three wins without conceding: 5-0 at Coventry City, 3-0 at home to Arsenal and 2-0 at Sunderland. They also won 3-2 at Manchester United in the League Cup on 16 September. September brought two awards, the club announced on 2 October: Pascal Gross was the Premier League's Player of the Month, the first Brighton player to win it, and head coach Fabian Hurzeler was Manager of the Month.

Crystal Palace have seven points from two wins, a draw and three defeats, with nine goals scored and 12 conceded. They are four points clear of the relegation zone, where Bournemouth are 18th on three. Their last five league games, oldest first: a 4-1 home defeat to Manchester City, a 3-2 win at Fulham, a 3-2 home defeat to Ipswich Town, a 0-0 draw at Leeds United and a 3-1 home win over Nottingham Forest on 11 October. In the Europa League they beat Lech Poznan 4-0 at home on 17 September.

Both clubs play in Europe on Thursday 15 October. Palace visit Lyon, the former club of their manager Pierre Sage, in the Europa League at 17:45 BST (12:45 p.m. ET). Brighton host Kauno Zalgiris at the Amex in the Conference League at 20:00 BST (3:00 p.m. ET), the first of their six league-phase games.

Brighton vs Crystal Palace team news

Pascal Struijk no longer faces a suspension. The defender was sent off in the 57th minute at Sunderland for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity, but on Wednesday Brighton said an independent Regulatory Commission had upheld a claim of wrongful dismissal, rescinded the red card and removed his one-match ban, so he is available for selection against Palace. He will miss Thursday's game, though. At his pre-match press conference Hurzeler said Struijk had some issues during the international break and that the club are managing him.

…hopefully he will be back at the end of the week for Palace.

Fabian Hurzeler, Brighton head coach, on Pascal Struijk, 14 October, via brightonandhovealbion.com

Jack Hinshelwood, who has been recovering from ankle ligament damage according to RotoWire, is in contention for Thursday's game, the club said.

For Palace, Sage said on Wednesday that Jean-Philippe Mateta, Dean Henderson, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Ben Chilwell would not be in Lyon, the club reported. Mateta is still working on his return from injury; players not registered for the Europa League did not travel, and Sage said everyone else was available. In his team news before the Forest game on 9 October, Sage had said he expected Mateta, Henderson and Tomiyasu back for either the Lyon game or the Brighton game. Mateta had not played since the opening-day defeat at Everton and had just returned to training. By Wednesday Palace had not said whether any of the four would be available on Sunday.

Brighton vs Crystal Palace head to head

Palace are unbeaten in the last four meetings of the M23 derby, with three wins and a draw, and Brighton's last win over them was the 4-1 at the Amex in February 2024.

Key numbers

Brighton have conceded once in three home league games: they beat Aston Villa 4-0 and Arsenal 3-0 and drew 1-1 with Leeds. Palace's away record is a 3-2 win at Fulham, a 0-0 draw at Leeds and a 2-0 defeat at Everton on the opening weekend. For how much playing at home is usually worth, see our study of home advantage across six leagues.

How they lined up last time

• Brighton, 4-2-3-1, in the 2-0 win at Sunderland on 10 October: Bart Verbruggen, Pascal Struijk, Luka Vuskovic, Olivier Boscagli, Ferdi Kadioglu, Yasin Ayari, Chema Andrés, Pascal Gross, Charalambos Kostoulas, Maxim De Cuyper and Diego Gómez. Struijk was sent off in the 57th minute.
• Crystal Palace, 3-4-2-1, in the 3-1 home win over Nottingham Forest on 11 October: Walter Benítez, Chris Richards, Jaydee Canvot, Jefferson Lerma, Quinten Timber, Adam Wharton, Tyrick Mitchell, Anan Khalaili, Jørgen Strand Larsen, Yéremy Pino and Daichi Kamada.

The goals and the details of both games are in our reports on Sunderland 0-2 Brighton and Crystal Palace 3-1 Nottingham Forest.

A Brighton win would take them to 16 points; a Palace win would lift them to 10, the total Brentford took into matchweek 7 in fourth place. All of matchweek 7 is on our Premier League fixtures page, the standings are in the Premier League table, and the Premier League simulator lets you play out the rest of the season.

How this preview was built: the table, form, head-to-head results, season leaders, lineups, kickoff time and US broadcaster come from ESPN's match data, with the table computed by Vertize Sports from ESPN full-time results. Team news and context come from the official sites of Brighton & Hove Albion and Crystal Palace and from RotoWire; the UK broadcaster is from Sky Sports. All were read on 14 October 2026.