Brighton vs West Ham head to head & Predictions (07 Dec)

Two teams with very different rhythms meet on the south coast as Brighton host West Ham in the Premier League. Brighton’s season has been more coherent than spectacular, while West Ham arrive in need of a stabilising result. The recent seven-goal drama against Aston Villa – lauded by Unai Emery and driven by Ollie Watkins, as noted by Shay Given on Match of the Day – exposed Brighton’s openness, but their broader data still paints a side that tends to control more than it concedes. West Ham, by contrast, have a habit of being dragged into high-event matches without the points to show for it.

Table picture and season snapshot

Brighton sit in a far stronger position, with a positive goal difference and a solid return through 14 fixtures. West Ham, in the bottom three by the current markers provided, have conceded heavily and struggle to score first. The gap in profiles is clear.

Across the campaign, Brighton’s matches skew towards goals: BTTS has landed in 71% of their league fixtures with 64% over 2.5 goals. West Ham are not far behind in game volume (69% over 2.5), but their issue is control: only 23% of their league games this season have seen them score first, and they concede, on average, roughly every 43.3 minutes.

Form guide and mood

Brighton’s last five league games read well despite the midweek sting. They swept aside Leeds, took care of Brentford, earned a clean sheet away at Crystal Palace, and won 2-0 at Nottingham Forest before being edged out 4-3 by Villa in a match where Villa’s comeback drew national praise. There is a recurring theme: high-velocity games that Brighton often shape, but sometimes can’t quite close.

West Ham’s recent sequence shows flickers without take-off: a home defeat to Liverpool, a useful point at Bournemouth, a morale-boosting 3-2 at home to Burnley, and a narrow loss at Leeds. It speaks to a team living on thin margins and paying for defensive lapses.

Brighton – last five (Premier League)

West Ham – recent results (Premier League)

There is also a broader historical note around West Ham this week, with tributes to Billy Bonds underlining the club’s identity. On the pitch, though, the current group need defensive clarity; their league concession rate underlines why so many of their fixtures tilt towards chaos.

Styles and numbers to watch

Brighton have scored 24 league goals from 68 shots on target, with a listed shot conversion of 35% this season and a late surge tendency: their top minute window for scoring is 76–90 (43%). They also average 5 corners for per game and 2.5 cards received.

West Ham’s profile is edgier: 15 league goals from 47 shots on target and a 32% conversion, with the same late-game spike (76–90 accounting for 50% of their goals’ top window). They average 5.54 corners for, 6.54 against, and 1.85 cards received. The risk-reward balance is often tilted against them, and when they don’t score first – which is most of the time – the defensive numbers tend to snowball.

Season metrics (league)

Head-to-head: Brighton usually find a way

Recent history leans towards Brighton. The head-to-head summary lists Brighton on 18 goals and four wins (40%) to West Ham’s 11 goals and one win (10%), with Brighton also registering more clean sheets (3 to 1). The last five meetings underline that tilt, punctuated by occasional outliers.

The market view and what it means

Model projections point towards the hosts: Brighton are quoted as a 61% match-winner in the 1X2, with Over 2.5 goals at 58% and BTTS Yes at 63%. That chimes with Brighton’s season pattern – high scoring and generally productive – and with West Ham’s checks-and-balances profile.

If you are surveying the wider weekend slate for context, a good place to sanity-check lines and angles is a round-up of premier league betting tips around similar fixtures.

For Brighton, a win would keep them on course and help tidy up the narrative after the Villa shootout; another high-scoring game would not be a surprise, but a calmer clean sheet would say more about their maturity. For West Ham, a point would be a useful reset ahead of a demanding run, while an away win – rarer in this match-up – would lift pressure and hint that the late-game surge in their scoring profile can finally translate into control rather than chase.