West Ham United-Brighton & Hove Albion Preview

West Ham manager David Moyes expressed his delight to be in contention for a top-six finish in the Premier League ahead of the clash with Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday.

The Hammers threw away a two-goal lead in their last game against leaders Manchester City, and sit two points behind sixth-placed Manchester United heading into the final day. United are at Crystal Palace, while West Ham make the trip to Brighton and Moyes heaped the praise on his side for competing with England's biggest teams.

"I believe so. I believe we'd have shown we've tried to maintain - maybe not quite better it - but we've gone further in most of the Cup competitions than we've done for a long time, especially in Europe," he said.

"To maintain where we've been in the Premier League... we've got probably the two best teams in world football now (Liverpool and City), and we're on the verge of maybe breaking into the big six again."

Brighton, who are 10th in the league, were held at Leeds United last time out after a late goal for Jesse Marsch's side, but much of manager Graham Potter's focus was on his opposite number Moyes on Friday.

"I think they have done fantastically well since David has gone there. He's done a fantastic job," Potter said. "I think the fact that he hasn't really been spoken about this year tells you just how well he did last year and how it's almost become a bit of the norm.

"They still made a semi-final of a major European competition and top seven in the Premier League. Considering when they were when they arrived, he's done a wonderful job."

Brighton and Hove Albion – Danny Welbeck

Welbeck has scored 11 goals in his two Premier League campaigns with Brighton (48 games), one more than he had in his previous four seasons with Arsenal/Watford (70 games). He's netted four Premier League goals against West Ham, only netting more in the competition against Aston Villa (5).

West Ham – Jarrod Bowen

Bowen is West Ham's highest Premier League goalscorer this season with 12 goals, the most by a Hammers player in a single campaign since Marlon Harewood in 2005-06 (14). However, just two of Bowen's 12 strikes this season have come away from home.

- Brighton are unbeaten in all nine of their Premier League meetings with West Ham (W3 D6) – it's both the most they've faced an opponent without ever losing, and the most the Hammers have faced a side without ever winning in the competition.

- West Ham have won just one of their last 10 away league games against Brighton (D3 L6), winning 1-0 in the Championship in October 2011 thanks to a Kevin Nolan goal.

- Each of the last six Premier League meetings between Brighton and West Ham have been drawn; in English top-flight history only three fixtures have ever been drawn seven times in a row – Chelsea v West Bromwich Albion (1921-1924), Aston Villa v West Ham (1998-2001) and Birmingham v Liverpool (2005-2010).

- Brighton have lost their final league game in three of their four Premier League campaigns, with the exception being a 2-1 win at Burnley in 2019-20.

- West Ham have won their final Premier League game in four of the last five campaigns (D1), last losing against Stoke City in 2015-16.

Updated May 20, 2022