Brighton's young manager Fabian Hurzeler started his Premier League career with an impressive win that meant Everton began their final season at Goodison Park in miserable fashion.
The venue has been Everton's home ground since 1892, but they will move to a new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock for the start of next season.
Hurzeler, the Premier League's youngest ever permanent manager, and his Brighton side were in no mood to provide any sentiment towards the opposition.
Tackles flew in during a thunderous first half in which Everton's Jack Harrison had an early goal ruled out for offside, while at the other end Joao Pedro rattled the post with a stinging low drive.
The visitors took the lead courtesy of Kaoru Mitoma's easy finish at the back post following fine work from debutant Yankuba Minteh, who was heavily linked with a move to Everton before joining Brighton this summer.
Everton had a penalty award overturned at the start of the second half despite Lewis Dunk appearing to catch Dominic Calvert-Lewin, as referee Simon Hooper reviewed the incident on the pitchside monitor.
Feeling hard done by, Everton were then punished further as Idrissa Gueye misplaced a pass in midfield, allowing the Seagulls to counter, and Danny Welbeck stroked in a lovely finish from the edge of the box.
Everton's Ashley Young was sent off as the last man for pulling back Japan international Mitoma, and Simon Adingra slid home a third goal late on to inflict a thoroughly desperate opening defeat on the home side.
All Change at the Seagulls Ahead of the New Season
Well, the big kick-off has arrived at long last, though there’s been plenty of takeover news and transfer rumours to keep Everton fans occupied throughout the off season. The onus is on the Blues - and manager Sean Dyche - to get off to a much better start to the campaign than was the case last year, when the team failed to secure a win through the first five games. It took five attempts before the Toffees finally won a game at Goodison Park, which is unacceptable.
By contrast, the team finished the campaign with five consecutive victories on home turf, so there’s no reason they can’t replicate that form from the off. The players will have been put through Dyche’s usual punishing summer training camp, and the club ended their preseason schedule in decent shape, thrashing Preston a couple of weeks ago and looking the better side after the interval last time out, in drawing with a good Roma side.
Now, the games start to count for something and first to travel to face the Blues at Goodison this afternoon are Brighton & Hove Albion.
The visitors are coming off a somewhat topsy-turvy 2023-24 , which saw them advance to the Round of 16 in the Europa League (being knocked out by Roma), but finish eleventh in the Premier League, a drop-off of five spots in the table from the previous term. It’s fair to say that the South Coast outfit found the demands of a Continental run tough to handle, with manager Roberto De Zerbi rotating regularly.
The Italian - who had been giving off increasingly discontented vibes - departed the club for Olympique de Marseille, to be replaced by FC St. Pauli boss Fabian Hürzeler in the summer. The Seagulls have backed the new man in the transfer market, to the tune of €87m net. They recouped €27m for forward Denis Undav, whose loan at VfB Stuttgart was made permanent, along with veteran Adam Lallana, but the loss of chief orchestrator Pascal Gross - whose impressive form last season was rewarded with a move to Dortmund - leaves a big hole in the side.
The arrival most familiar to Blues fans is Newcastle United winger Yankuba Minteh, a major early summer target for Everton, for €35m. In typical style, of their new additions, only one - tall Feyenoord defensive midfielder Mats Wieffer- is over the age of 20. Other noteworthy recruits are winger Brajan Gruda, from FSV Mainz 05, for €30m and 19-year-old fellow wide man Ibrahim Osman (€19.5m).
The Seagulls arrive at Goodison coming off an impressive 4-0 dismantling of Villarreal in their last preseason friendly match.
The Brighton front office recruit managers to suit their system, which is one of possession, playing out from the back through pressure and pressing — very much in the mode of current coaching thought. Hürzeler, an American-born German national, very much fits that mould. He started coaching at just 23, whilst playing at an amateur level and was still turning out for minnows Eimsbütteler Turnverband a little over two years ago.
Hürzeler then joined the staff at St. Pauli and by December 2022 was promoted to caretaker manager, being made permanent boss a mere two weeks later. In his first full season in charge, the German managed to get the Hamburg club promoted back to the Bundesliga, attracting the interest of Brighton. In becoming the new Seagulls boss, the 31-year-old has become the youngest manager in Premier League history.
Obviously there’s a risk in this, given he’s only taken charge of a total of 57 games in the German second tier — albeit with considerable success (36 wins, against 12 draws and seven losses).
Brighton's New Manager's Tactics
At St. Pauli, Hürzeler switched a a 3-4-3 formation immediately and has rarely deviated from this setup. Under De Zerbi, Brighton typically went with a 4-2-3-1 shape, though had played a back three frequently under Graham Potter, so a shift should be routine. Hürzeler favours a high defensive line, with attacking wing-backs and an emphasis on wide play and cut-backs into the opposition area, in a very aggressive system. He looks for high-tempo passing movement in the final third, and to create overload in sections of the pitch. Off the ball, his St. Pauli side employed a mid-block, though would press with intensity on occasion.
Minteh - a player whose promise excited many Everton fans during a protracted, failed attempt to buy him - should be one to watch. The rapid right winger, though employed as a wing-back last weekend, will test Vitalii Mykolenko, but the Ukrainian has faced some quality players over the past eighteen months and rarely struggled.
Another former Blues target, Joao Pedro will offer a threat. The versatile attacker scored nine goals last term and is a skilful, mobile player.
Kaoru Mitoma will be looking to rebound from a disappointing, injury-blighted season, in which he managed only 15 league starts. Fast, tricky and with an eye for goal, the Japanese is fit for the start of the campaign and will give Ashley Young a stern test, should the uber-veteran line be given the nod at right back, as seems probable.
There’s no doubt that Hürzeler is German football’s newest hot young manager on the scene and the impact he’s had in the first 18 months of his career in the dugout can’t be denied. He clearly is full of ideas and knows how he wants his team to play and - more importantly - how to make that happen. Equally, a complete lack of experience in top level football cannot be disregarded either, with the step up from the German second tier to the English top flight obviously being pretty huge.
Still, he has a young side which finished mid table last season and possesses plenty of quick, exciting attacking talent. Whether he’ll be forced to adapt as the campaign progresses, away from his natural inclination to dominate games, we’ll have to wait and see, but it’ll certainly be an engrossing watch.
Dyche's Counterattack Strategy
St. Pauli faced a lot of low-block, defensive-minded opposition last term and whilst Dyche is not one to encourage a lot of possession, it’s wrong to think of him as being passive defensively. If anything, his style in one of a counter-puncher, in boxing: to protect, make things awkward for the opponent and then to spring out with a quick burst of offensive action. He stresses structure above all else, along with hard work and a commitment to getting the side into attacking positions as quickly as possible when possession is gained.
This strategy could prove very effective against the visitors, who actually gave up some good chances against Villarreal when caught out in direct play, though they escaped punishment and ran out handy winners. Dyche will set up as always, giving up wide areas, which Brighton will happily take, relying on doubling up from his wingers and a solid basic structure to block off approaches to goal. Everton’s selected intense pressing in and around their own half should give the team plenty of turnovers which they can (hopefully) exploit.
I can see this being the type of game the Blues played towards the end of last season, one of attack versus counterattack, relying on direct play, knock downs - and potentially fluid movement in behind the central striker, as has been demonstrated at times in preseason. Brighton are kind of an unknown proposition, but I feel Everton can get the better of them this afternoon and start the season on a positive note.
Prediction: Everton 2-1
Where to Watch
Everton host Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday, Aug. 17, at Goodison Park, with kickoff set for 3 p.m. BST local time, making it a 10 a.m. ET or 7 a.m. PT start in the US and Canada and a 12 a.m. AEST kickoff in the early hours of Sunday in Australia.
Below, we'll outline the best live TV streaming services to use to watch game as it happens wherever you are in the world.
Watching in the US
Saturday's Newcastle vs. Southampton match is streaming on Peacock. You'll need a Peacock Premium or Premium Plus account to catch the game live.
Peacock offers two Premium plans, and after the recent price increases, the ad-supported Premium plan will cost $8 a month, and the ad-free Premium Plus plan will cost $14 a month.
Watching in the UK
No broadcaster has the rights to show this game live in the UK, due to the traditional Saturday 3 p.m. kickoff blackout, which prohibits matches being shown in the region at that time in order to protect attendances throughout the English football pyramid.
That also means that if you're in the UK traveling for pleasure or for work, you're unlikely to be able to watch the game like you normally would at home, thanks to geo-blocking.
There’s one option to get around this, however. By using a VPN, as explained above, you can set your location to a country where the match is being broadcast and go from there.
Watching in Canada
If you want to stream this EPL game live in Canada, you'll need to subscribe to Fubo Canada. The service has exclusive rights to every Premier League fixture once again this season.
Fubo is the go-to destination for Canadians looking to watch the EPL this season, with exclusive streaming rights to every match. It costs CA$30 per month, though you can save some cash by paying quarterly or annually.
Watching in Australia
Football fans Down Under can watch EPL matches live on streaming service Optus Sport, which is showing every single Premier League fixture of the 2024/25 season live in Australia.
With exclusive rights to screen all EPL matches live this season, as well as German Bundesliga and Spanish La Liga games, streaming service Optus Sport is a particularly big draw for Aussie soccer fans.
If you're already an Optus network customer you can bag Optus Sport for a reduced price, with discounts bringing the price down to as low as AU$7 per month. If you're not, a standalone monthly subscription to the service starts at AU$25.
Statistics provided courtesy of transfermarkt.com
