Huddersfield vs Brighton - Match Preview

The Terriers and the Seagulls will play each other on Saturday at the Kirklees Stadium formerly known as The John Smith Stadium. It will be the first time that these two sides have come up against each other in the top flight of English Football ever so it should hopefully make for a tasty encounter between two sides who are very close to each other in the table.

A win for either of these teams would be a psychological boost and would help towards their bid to stay up. If Huddersfield were to win, they'd leapfrog Brighton and be the highest among the promoted teams in the league.

If Brighton were to win they'd begin to create a gap on Huddersfield and would continue to increase that 7 point gap between them and the relegation zone and move even further away from the likes of West Ham, Swansea and their arch-rivals Crystal Palace.

The very latest past encounters

The fixture at the Amex Stadium ended with Brighton scoring in the last 10 minutes with on-loan keeper Danny Ward letting in a tame shot from Anthony Knockaert over the line which gave Brighton three crucial points to continue their impressive run which helped take them to the top flight for the first time ever in their history.

In the reverse fixture, Huddersfield will be hoping that they can recreate the performance which saw them convincingly beat Brighton at home 3-1 with Brighton ending the game with 10 men due to one of their star players centre-back Lewis Dunk being sent off.

Team News

Huddersfield

David Wagner will be without players such as Billing (Ankle), Stankovic (Knee) and fan favourite Michael Hefele who has an Achilles problem. Finally, Rajiv Van La Parra is unable to play against his former team where he was on loan due to suspension.

Brighton

Chris Hughton confirmed in his press conference that everyone is available to be selected apart from Steve Sidwell who is yet to play this season as he is still recovering from an operation on his back. However, Sam Baldock is unlikely to be included in the squad for the trip up to Huddersfield due to a lack of match fitness.

Predicted Team Line-Ups

Huddersfield: Lossl, Smith, Jorgensen, Schindler, Malone, Mooy, Williams, Lowe, Ince, Kachunga and Depoitre

Brighton: Ryan, Bruno, Dunk, Duffy, Bong, Knockaert, Brown, Stephens, Propper, Gross and Hemed

Players to watch for either side

Huddersfield's Australian centre-midfielder Aaron Mooy will be key if Huddersfield want to get a result against Brighton. They will hope to have a lot of possession against Brighton as they will be expected to as they are at home and David Wagner's philosophy is based very much on that.

Mooy will be expected to dictate the tempo for Huddersfield and pick out those key passes which can lead to goal-scoring opportunities. He was vital in Huddersfield's surprise 2-1 victory over Manchester United David Wagner will be hoping he can produce the goods again and contribute with another important goal for his side.

Huddersfield Town pulled off a major upset against United

For Brighton, the player to watch is Anthony Knockaert. Knockaert was known for getting the Brighton fans regularly off their seats at the Amex when he produced a lovely bit of quality for them.

So far, he hasn't quite hit the ground running but in the past few games, he has started to pick up some form and adjust to the league which has led to him producing several Man-of-the-match performances in games including him coming up with a vital goal against Everton and creating the winning goal for Brighton away against Swansea at the Liberty Stadium.

Knockaert also has a history of scoring goals against Huddersfield when he used to play for Leicester which the Huddersfield fans won't remember fondly and will be hoping that it doesn't happen again against them like in 2012 where he scored two fantastic individual goals. So that may be something to consider when picking your Fantasy Football Team this week.