Preparing for his first season in English football, Brighton defender Maxim de Cuyper is confident he can form a strong partnership with Kaoru Mitoma this season. 

De Cuyper joined the Seagulls this summer from Belgian outfit Club Brugge, completing a deal reportedly worth £17.3m (€20m), signing a five-year contract.

The 24-year-old featured in 12 matches in the Champions League for Brugge and is set to be a direct replacement for Pervis Estupinan, who completed a switch to AC Milan. 

The Belgium international scored in Brighton's final pre-season encounter against Wolfsburg, while also combining well with Mitoma down the left-hand side. 

And De Cuyper feels he can provide a dangerous threat for Fabian Hurzeler's side, who begin their Premier League campaign at home to Fulham this Saturday. 

"If you can play with a winger like this, I think everybody knows his qualities," De Cuyper told the club website.

"If I can take advantage of his qualities and if he's pulling two defenders to him, it gives me more space to do something. I think we have good co-operation between each other and we can use it.

"It was just a good goal, nothing special. It can be that I will be there often, but at the right time. Not every attack I will be there, so I'll have to take my moments and hopefully can score more goals."

Fulham have also gone unbeaten in pre-season. Marco Silva's side have defeated Nottingham Forest, Al-Ittihad and Eintracht Frankfurt in preparation for the new season.

Raul Jimenez, who was Fulham's top scorer in the Premier League in 2024-25 with 12 goals, returned late to pre-season training after helping Mexico win the Gold Cup in July.

Jiminez scored the winner in their friendly against Frankfurt and believes the Cottagers can have a strong start to their Premier League campaign.

"I'm really happy to finish pre-season with a win and a goal," said Jimenez.

"For me, it is always important to score, to gain some more confidence and I'm really happy for the team.

"The good thing is that I had time to rest, but there also was not a lot of time, so it was not difficult to back to full fitness with the team. I’m doing well.

"I have [been] working for two or three weeks, doing my best for the team.

"I think the team is ready. We have been getting good results during pre-season. We know it is different when we start the Premier League, but we are going to give our best to set our standards and do well in the league."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Brighton – Kaoru Mitoma

Mitoma finished the 2024-25 campaign in great form, scoring or assisting in four of his last five Premier League matches.

The Japan international scored 10 league goals last season and registered four assists, his best season with Brighton in terms of goal involvements.

Fulham – Alex Iwobi

Alex Iwobi had his best scoring campaign in the league last season, finding the net nine times while also providing six assists.

Iwobi has only been involved in more Premier League goals against West Ham United (eight) than he has against Brighton (six), with the Seagulls the only side he's both scored (three) and assisted (three) 3+ goals against.

MATCH PREDICTION – BRIGHTON WIN

Following Brighton's 7-0 loss to Nottingham Forest in February, the Seagulls scored more Premier League goals than any other side (31), while only Manchester City (30) and Aston Villa (29) have picked up more points than Brighton in that time (27 – W8 D3 L3).

The Seagulls have also enjoyed the opening day of the season in recent years, having won their opening league match in each of the last four seasons. It's the Seagulls' longest such run in their league history, and the longest current run of any Premier League side.

Brighton also beat Fulham 2-1 in March, ending a nine-game winless run against the Cottagers in the Premier League (D4 L5).

Fulham, meanwhile, have won just one of their last seven away league games against Brighton (D3 L3), beating them 1-0 in February 2023.

The Cottagers usually struggle in their season opener too, having won their opening league match in just one of the last eight campaigns (D3 L4), winning 1-0 at Everton in 2023-24.

However, Fulham have won 50% of their 10 Premier League games against Brighton (W5 D4 L1) – of the sides they've faced 10+ times in the competition, only against Leicester City (58%) and Bolton Wanderers (55%) do they have a higher win rate.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Brighton – 49.1%

Draw – 24.5%

Fulham – 26.4%