‘Too many draws have cost us’ – De Zerbi

Roberto De Zerbi has highlighted too many draws as Brighton’s problem this season while looking ahead to their trip to Bournemouth on Sunday.

The Seagulls suffered a heavy 4-0 defeat to title-hopefuls Manchester City on Thursday, extending their winless run to five games.

Despite sitting in 12th, Brighton still have an outside chance of getting a European place next season, though they would have to win all five of their remaining matches against teams above them in the table.

Asked how his side will approach a tough fixture list at the end of the season, De Zerbi said: “It’s not a good thing we’re playing teams above us. We should be better. Chelsea and Bournemouth are very close with us, and we have the chance to win the game and fight to reach the highest position we can.

“We’ve had too many draws. For sure we can lose 11 games in this moment, but we could win more games. Sometimes I think what I could do better to win more games, but it’s tough because we drew a lot, shooting a lot of times on goal without scoring, especially at home.”

Back in action against Bournemouth. pic.twitter.com/Z0SZebuAkh

— Brighton & Hove Albion (@OfficialBHAFC) April 27, 2024

Bournemouth edged to a 1-0 victory over Wolves on Wednesday to get back to winning ways and move above the Seagulls in the table.

Andoni Iraola has reflected on the improvement that the Cherries have made after their poor start to the campaign.

“We cannot discount the first nine, 10 games, and I do feel we have improved a lot since the first game. But we cannot recover those points we have missed.

“We want to finish strong. We have four games left which are really difficult to finish the season and I hope we improved from the games we played against these teams in the first phase.”

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Bournemouth – Justin Kluivert

Kluivert has scored in his last two Premier League home games for Bournemouth, as many times as he had in his first 12 appearances at the Vitality Stadium.

Brighton – Danny Welbeck

No Brighton player has scored more away goals in the Premier League this season than Welbeck (four). Only in 2013-14 (six) has he scored more on the road in a single campaign.

MATCH PREDICTION: BRIGHTON WIN

Brighton won this exact fixture 2-0 last season, ending a run of four straight away league defeats against Bournemouth. They last won consecutive league visits to the Cherries in February 1932.

However, Brighton have won just two of their last 15 Premier League away games (D5 L8), beating Nottingham Forest 3-2 in November and Sheffield United 5-0 in February.

Having won four of their first six Premier League meetings with Brighton (D1 L1), Bournemouth have now lost each of their last three against the Seagulls.

Bournemouth have also lost 67.5% of their Premier League games played on Sunday (27/40), the highest loss rate for any team to have played 10+ Sunday games in the competition’s history.

Bournemouth are unbeaten in their last five Premier League home games (W3 D2) – only once have they had a longer run without defeat at the Vitality Stadium in the top-flight, going six games between May and October 2018.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Bournemouth – 31.1%

Draw – 28.4%

Brighton – 40.5%