Femi Azeez’s Brighton vs Leeds – Preview, team news, tips, h2h

Brighton and Hove Albion host Leeds United at the Amex Stadium on Saturday, September 5, 2026, in a Premier League round three fixture that pits two sides who have started the new season with markedly different defensive pictures, Afrik-Foot reports.

Brighton have scored seven goals in their opening two matches but have also shipped four at the other end, while Leeds have kept things tighter, conceding just once as they returned to home comforts with a hard-fought draw against Brentford.

The timing is notable for Brighton fans with an eye on the club’s growing Nigerian contingent, since Super Eagles winger Femi Azeez completed a deadline-day move from Millwall this week, becoming the second Nigerian recruit of the summer window after Zadok Yohanna’s arrival from AIK. Azeez will not feature this weekend because of a muscle injury, but his signing adds another layer of interest to a Brighton squad that head coach Fabian Hurzeler continues to reshape.

Brighton vs Leeds: How both sides arrive at the Amex

Brighton’s opening two league matches have told two very different stories. They dismantled Aston Villa four-nil on the opening weekend, with two goals from Jack Hinshelwood inside a two-minute spell either side of a João Gomes red card. That victory was followed by a seven-goal thriller at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea eventually won four-three despite Brighton twice pulling a goal back through Malick Yalcouyé and a Pascal Groß header in stoppage time.

Those two results leave Brighton with three points from a possible six, but the underlying picture is more encouraging than the outcome suggests. Hurzeler’s side have scored freely in both matches and their attacking intent has not wavered even away from home against a difficult opponent.

Leeds, in contrast, have prioritised control over chaos in their return to the top flight. Anton Stach’s late free kick settled the opening-day trip to Nottingham Forest, and Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s second-half equaliser rescued a point against Brentford at Elland Road after Kevin Schade had given the visitors a first-half lead. Daniel Farke’s side remain unbeaten, and it is genuinely notable this early in the campaign that James Trafford has conceded only once in his opening two Premier League appearances since his club-record move from Manchester City.

It is too early to make much of table positions after only two rounds, but the shape of each team’s season is already visible. Brighton are aiming to build on an eighth-place finish that secured Europa Conference League football, a campaign that also began this week with continental fixtures against Tromsø. Leeds, meanwhile, are trying to show that last season’s fourteenth-place finish and run to the FA Cup semi-final were the platform for progress rather than a peak, having strengthened their defensive spine in the summer with the permanent arrivals of goalkeeper Trafford and centre-back Tarik Muharemović.

There is an added subplot to the game in the shape of Pascal Struijk, who left Leeds for Brighton in a twenty-million-pound deal this summer after eight and a half years at Elland Road. Struijk was a mainstay of the back three that helped secure Leeds’ Premier League survival, and he could yet find himself named among the substitutes against his former side.

Head-to-head record between Brighton and Leeds

The most recent meeting between Brighton and Leeds came on May 17, when Calvert-Lewin’s stoppage-time header gave Leeds a one-nil win at Elland Road to end last season. Before that, Brighton won the corresponding home fixture three-nil on November 1, 2025, a result that remains their most recent home meeting with Leeds.

Going further back, the sides drew two-two in March 2023 and Brighton won one-nil in August 2022, though those results are now several years old and carry limited weight for a team news picture built on 2026-27 form. Across their full history in English football, Brighton hold a clear overall advantage with 12 wins to Leeds’ three, alongside five draws.

Team news: Azeez sidelined as Brighton and Leeds weigh injury concerns

Brighton will be without several attacking options this weekend. Femi Azeez, the Super Eagles forward and Brighton’s newest signing, is out with a muscle injury sustained before he could make his debut, and he is not expected back until mid-September. Jack Hinshelwood, who scored twice against Aston Villa and was rated Brighton’s standout performer in the opening round, is also sidelined with a knock and expected to return around the same time.

Kaoru Mitoma is out with a hamstring problem, also targeting a mid-September comeback, while Yankuba Minteh is a longer-term absentee with a leg injury that is not expected to clear until November. Evan Ferguson remains out with an ankle problem into October, Stefanos Tzimas is working back from a cruciate ligament issue, and Georginio Rutter is a doubt through physical discomfort having still played a leading role in Brighton’s early-season attack.

Leeds have their own list of concerns. Joe Rodon was forced off during the Brentford draw with a hamstring injury and is expected to miss the next few weeks, while Ilia Gruev is out with a meniscus problem targeting a mid-September return. Mateo Joseph faces a lengthy spell out with a knee injury that is not expected to resolve until the new year, and Gabriel Gudmundsson is a doubt with a hamstring issue of his own.

Based on the personnel available to both managers, the likely elevens shape up as follows, listed from right to left across each line.

Brighton (4-2-3-1): Verbruggen; Kadioglu, Dunk, Vuskovic, De Cuyper; Wieffer, Boscagli; Groß, Gómez, Yalcouyé; Kostoulas.

Leeds (3-4-2-1): Trafford; Elvedi, Bijol, Muharemović; Bogle, Ampadu, Stach, Justin; Aaronson, Okafor; Calvert-Lewin.

The managers: Fabian Hurzeler and Daniel Farke

Fabian Hurzeler became the youngest permanent manager in Premier League history when Brighton appointed him in June 2024 after he had guided St Pauli to the Bundesliga 2 title.

He replaced Roberto De Zerbi and has kept Brighton playing an aggressive, possession-based style built around quick starts and high pressing, a philosophy that helped the club reach eighth place and Europa Conference League qualification last season. His side’s habit of starting matches quickly has continued into the new campaign, with four goals inside thirty-one minutes against Aston Villa the clearest example.

Daniel Farke arrived at Leeds in July 2023 and led the club to the Championship title before overseeing a fourteenth-place finish and an FA Cup semi-final run in Leeds’ return to the top flight.

A mid-season switch from an attacking 4-3-3 to a more compact 3-5-2, with wing-backs replacing wide forwards, was widely credited with turning Leeds’ fortunes around last term, and the club have carried that pragmatic approach into the current campaign with a settled 3-4-2-1 system.

Tactical preview: How Brighton and Leeds could set up

Brighton’s 4-2-3-1 shape is built to dominate the ball and create overloads through midfield rotation, with Groß dropping deep to help build attacks and the front three interchanging positions to drag Leeds’ back three out of shape. The trade-off, as Chelsea proved, is space in behind the full backs when Brighton commit numbers forward, an issue Leeds could target with quick transitions through Aaronson and Okafor.

Leeds’ 3-4-2-1 is designed for control without the ball, with Ampadu and Stach screening the back three and Bogle and Justin providing width from deep positions rather than out-and-out wingers. Calvert-Lewin’s aerial presence gives Leeds a direct route to goal from crosses and long balls, which could prove significant against a Brighton back line without a recognised out-and-out enforcer at centre back. The visitors will likely be content to sit deeper for long spells and look to strike on the counter or from set pieces, much as they did in going ahead against Brentford before Brighton-style intensity from the home crowd forces them into uncomfortable areas of the pitch.

Brighton vs Leeds prediction and betting tips

Brighton’s early-season goalscoring has come with a defensive vulnerability that Leeds, with Calvert-Lewin’s aerial threat and their evident comfort in tight matches, are well equipped to exploit. Backing the double chance protects against another leaky afternoon at the back, while both teams to score and the over 2.5 goals line reflect the pattern of the opening rounds for each side.

Brighton’s blend of firepower and defensive fragility should be enough to see off a well-drilled Leeds side that will make life difficult without quite having the attacking edge to leave the Amex Stadium with anything more than pride intact.