Brentford v Brighton Betting Tips: Visitors to bounce back on Sunday

This Championship match sees two teams with contrasting recent form go head-to-head as promotion hopefuls Brighton travel to face mid-table Brentford at Griffin Park.

Brentford arguably produced one of their best performances of the season on Tuesday night as they recovered from three straight defeats to thrash recently-relegated Aston Villa 3-0. What makes this victory even more impressive is that they managed to do it without striker Scott Hogan, who coincidentally moved to Villa just before the transfer window shut that same night. This means the Bees have jumped up to 13th but the 10 point gap between them and the play-offs will still probably prove too much come May.

Although they are still top of the Championship, Brighton have had a bit of a dip recently losing their last two matches in all competitions. However, they are still well within the automatic promotion spots and are five points ahead of Reading.

Defensively, neither of these sides are terrible with Brentford conceding just 35 league goals and keeping an impressive 10 clean sheets (36% of games) whilst Chris Hughton’s Brighton side have the joint best defensive record in the league with just 21 goals conceded in 28 Championship games. Additionally, they have recorded an impressive 15 clean sheets which is 54% of games – again, joint best along with Derby County.

The Seagulls are by far the better team going forward and, although they beat Villa 3-0 the other night, it will be interesting to see how Brentford cope with the loss of talismanic striker Scott Hogan.

Dean Smith’s Brentford side are hovering around the mid-table area in both the ‘Home Form’ and ‘Away Form’ tables but have taken eight more points at home than they have on their travels. The Bees have been pretty good at Griffin Park lately having suffered just one defeat in their last six matches in all competitions with that coming against Brighton’s title rivals Newcastle United.

As you would expect from the top side in the division, Brighton have been excellent on their travels and only Newcastle have a better away record than them. However, it is certainly worth noting that the Seagulls have lost their last three away games in all competitions so it will be interesting to see if they can bounce back here.

Both of these teams are pretty good at the back which will play into the hands of the hosts. Hughton’s men certainly have the attacking power to unlock Brentford’s defence and, without Hogan, I doubt the Bees will have enough in their locker to cause Brighton too many problems. I think Brighton to win at a profitable 7/5 is good value here.

You can read more Championship tips here.