Albion v Crystal Palace on Sunday: Third-Placed Seagulls Begin Seven Games in 21 Days
The Amex Stadium in Falmer, file photo (Photo: N Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph)
Brighton and Hove Albion host Crystal Palace at the Amex on Sunday 18 October, kick-off 2pm, live on Sky Sports. The Seagulls arrive third in the Premier League after a 2-0 win at Sunderland on 10 October, and the Palace game is the second of seven matches they play in 21 days.
It is a busy stretch: a Conference League night at home on Thursday, a trip to Anfield, two visits to Manchester City in four days and another European away day in the Czech Republic. We have pulled together every date and kick-off from the club's own fixture list below.
Source: Brighton and Hove Albion fixtures and match reports, Crystal Palace website and league score data, linked below. Table positions are as of 12 October 2026
Where Albion stand
Fabian Hurzeler's side have won four of their first six Premier League games, drawn one and lost one, which is 13 points and a goal difference of plus 13 according to league score data. The club says it is the first time in eight years that Albion have won three successive Premier League matches.
The September results and the Sunderland score match the club's own reports. The August results come from league score data.
The Sunderland win, in the club's words
Maxim De Cuyper scored on 53 minutes and Jaouen Hadjam added a second on his Premier League debut in stoppage time. In between, Pascal Struijk was sent off for denying a goalscoring opportunity, so Albion played the last half hour with ten men. The club's match report has the full story.
We showed that togetherness, and I think it was a deserved win.
Fabian Hurzeler, after the Sunderland game (club website)
Hurzeler called the red card "harsh" but praised how his team defended the lead. The club also notes, in its media review, that Pascal Gross now has seven goal involvements in six league matches. It quotes BBC Sport saying he is the oldest player to provide an assist in three successive Premier League games since Ryan Giggs in February 2012.
The club has announced all three awards: Manager of the Month, Player of the Month and Goal of the Month.
Crystal Palace this season
Palace sit 12th with seven points from six games, with two wins, a draw and three defeats, according to the club's own match page. They are also playing in the Europa League this season.
Sources: league score data for Albion, Crystal Palace website for Palace. Positions can change after this weekend's games
Why the game is on a Sunday
On 17 August the club announced the game had been moved to Sunday 18 October at 2pm, live on Sky Sports, because of Palace's Europa League tie on Thursday 15 October. That is also the night of Albion's first Conference League league-phase match, against Kauno Zalgiris at the Amex. You can read who Albion face in our Conference League opponents guide.
The last four meetings
Albion have not beaten Palace in the Premier League since a 4-1 home win on 3 February 2024, and Palace have won three of the last four meetings.
The first three results are on Palace's match page. The December 2024 result and the 2024 win come from the Wikipedia rivalry page.
Seven games in 21 days
The club's media review quotes BBC Sport describing the Sunderland game as the first of seven matches in 21 days. Here is the full run, using the dates and kick-offs on the club's fixtures page. Note that the clocks go back on the morning of Sunday 25 October, so Anfield is a 2pm GMT kick-off.
The Carabao Cup tie details come from Manchester City's announcement. After October the schedule stays full, with Getafe away on Thursday 5 November and Brentford at home on Sunday 8 November.
How the rivalry began
The fixture is often called the A23 or M23 derby, after the road and motorway linking Sussex and south London. The clubs are about 40 miles apart and first met in 1920, but the rivalry only really caught fire in the mid-1970s.
In 1976 Terry Venables took over at Palace and Alan Mullery at Brighton, and their sides met in the league and the FA Cup that season. The FA Cup first-round tie alone took three matches, going to two replays, with Palace winning the second replay 1-0 at Stamford Bridge. Mullery was fined 100 pounds by the FA afterwards. Both clubs were promoted that season, with Brighton finishing as runners-up.
Other famous chapters include a 1989 league game at Selhurst Park in which five penalties were awarded in 27 minutes, a Football League record, and the 2013 Championship play-off semi-final, which Palace won 2-0 at Falmer after a 0-0 first leg. Wikipedia's unofficial count across all competitions is 51 Albion wins, 42 draws and 52 Palace wins from 145 meetings. All of this is from the Wikipedia article on the rivalry.
What we could not confirm
A few things were not available when we published:
- team news for Sunday. Struijk was sent off at Sunderland, which normally brings a ban for the next league game, but we have not seen the club confirm it
- the match officials and any change to the kick-off time
- whether tickets are still on sale, which you can check on the club ticket site
ImJustBrighton has no connection to either club. We will update this article if anything changes.
Sources and further reading
- Brighton and Hove Albion: men's fixtures
- Brighton and Hove Albion: New date for Crystal Palace match at the Amex (17 August 2026)
- Brighton and Hove Albion: Report, Sunderland 0 Albion 2
- Brighton and Hove Albion: Reaction, Fabian Hurzeler delighted with Albion's togetherness
- Brighton and Hove Albion: Media review, Gross impresses in win over Sunderland
- Brighton and Hove Albion: Fabian Hurzeler is Premier League Manager of the Month for September
- Brighton and Hove Albion: Pascal Gross, Premier League Player of the Month
- Brighton and Hove Albion: Lewis Dunk wins Goal of the Month for September
- Crystal Palace: Brighton and Hove Albion v Crystal Palace match page
- Manchester City: City v Brighton, Carabao Cup fixture confirmed
- theScore: Sunderland v Brighton and Hove Albion
- Wikipedia: Brighton and Hove Albion F.C. and Crystal Palace F.C. rivalry
For more local sport, see our sport coverage and every story tagged Brighton and Hove Albion.
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