Aston Villa travel to Brighton on Sunday afternoon as they continue their hunt for Champions League football next season.

Brighton’s regression in the second half of the Premier League campaign has been stark enough to warrant more attention and the Seagulls’ emphatic 3-0 loss at Bournemouth last weekend saw them drop to 12th-place in the table.

Albion are now on course to land their lowest Premier League finish since 2021 (16th) and their plight could worsen on Sunday when they host Unai Emery’s formidable Villans at the Amex Stadium.

Brighton were toppled in three of their last four Premier League fixtures and in each of those defeats, Albion conceded at least three goals. With Robert De Zerbi struggling to plug gaps, Brighton’s defence could be overexposed again this weekend.

Helped by an Ollie Watkins hat-trick, Aston Villa roared to a 6-1 victory over Brighton when the teams last met in September in what was their joint-biggest win of the campaign and having notched at least twice in five of their last six matches, the Midlanders are primed to excel in the final third again.

While Brighton are drifting listlessly to a limp finish, Villa have motivations to perform and Champions League football to secure, so expect the visitors to be sharper on Sunday. The Villans average 2.33 goals per 90 minutes across their last six away league skirmishes and they are nicely priced, from a punters point of view, to net over 1.5 times again at Brighton.

Goals and drama has been the theme of the party at Stamford Bridge in recent weeks and this London derby between Chelsea and West Ham is poised to join in.

Both teams have scored in four of the last six league home games for Chelsea, extending out to six of their last eight across all competitions, and before their recent defensive heroics against Everton and Spurs, the Blues hadn’t kept a single clean sheet for nine Premier League games.

Chelsea have scored in 12 consecutive league matches at home, scoring two or more in all of their last six.

West Ham have been victim of a similar trend with both teams netting in nine of their last ten games in the Premier League with the Hammers failing to keep a clean sheet since gameweek 20 (including seven away games).

But they have been effective at scoring away from home, finding the net in four consecutive league away fixtures, and have scored in nine of their last ten in the top-flight.

Across their seasonal averages, 65% of Chelsea’s Premier League fixtures have witnessed both teams to score, with the Hammers narrowly ahead with 69%.

This selection was successful in four of the last five editions of this derby, including all of the last three, which extends out to 13 of the last 20 dating back to 2015.