Brighton & Hove Albion’s Premier League clash with Liverpool on Saturday afternoon has been delayed by 15 minutes due to traffic preventing fans from getting to the ground. The match was initially slated to take place at 12.30pm, but the Premier League released a statement in the build-up to announce the timing change.
Taking to X, the Premier League Match Centre wrote: “Kick-off for today’s Premier League match between Brighton & Hove Albion and Liverpool has been delayed by 15 minutes to 12:45pm, due to heavy traffic in the local area delaying the arrival of supporters.” Lynsey Hipgrave, meanwhile, shared the announcement during TNT Sports’ coverage. She said: “We do have a lot of empty seats still at the moment. Thanks Crouchy [Peter Crouch] for giving me the opportunity to remind everyone there is going to be a delay to kick-off here as well while they try and get as many fans as possible into the stadium.
“There has been an accident on the A27 heading towards the AMEX today. So, long tailbacks outside so they’re going to hold the match back a little bit just to try and get as many of the supports in as they can.”
Liverpool and Brighton & Hove Albion FC players were still out onto the pitch to warm up as normal despite the slight delay, knowing the importance of the match on the home stretch of 2025/26. Liverpool head into the encounter fifth in the league standings with hopes of securing their spot in the Champions League for the new season.
However, they will be without talisman, Mohamed Salah, for Saturday’s match as a result the Egyptian forward picking up an injury during the Reds’ midweek clash with Galatasaray. Salah signalled that he wanted to come off with around 20 minutes to play, with Arne Slot later explaining that he “felt something.”
The head coach added during his pre-match press conference looking to Brighton on Friday: “Indeed, unusual and as a result of that you can expect the outcome, he’s not available for tomorrow. The good thing for Liverpool, for us, is we go to an international break, and the bad thing for Egypt is that he can’t go there.
“We’re hoping with what Mo has shown in the past that he can recover faster than other players in similar situation because he takes such good care of his body. History has shown he can be back earlier than some others, but it’s only two weeks until we go again, so let’s hope in that period of time he can be back.”
Brighton, meanwhile, are currently situated 12th in the league standings; a win could see them soar as high as eighth, albeit temporarily given they are the early kick-off on Saturday. They remain unchanged from last weekend’s 1-0 win over Sunderland AFC.