Brighton & Hove Albion ended their six-match winless streak in the Premier League with a 2-0 victory over Burnley at Amex Stadium.
Georginio Rutter and Yasin Ayari were on target for Fabian Hurzeler’s side, who climbed into the top half of the table after getting back to winning ways.
Both players were involved in the first goal just before the half-hour mark, with Ayari’s effort deflecting into the path of Rutter, who drilled home.
Ayari then capitalised on loose defending early in the second half to ultimately put the game beyond the visitors.
The Seagulls climb to eighth place as Scott Parker’s side, whose own winless stretch extends to 11 matches, remain 19th and six points from safety.
How the match unfolded
Brighton quickly asserted their authority on the proceedings. Joel Veltman headed over from close range, while Charalampos Kostoulas' neat finish was ruled out by the offside flag.
Lewis Dunk nodded over from Ferdi Kadioglu's free-kick before the hosts opened the scoring in the 29th minute. Ayari's low drive ricocheted off Kostoulas into the path of Rutter, who finished past Martin Dubravka.
Burnley almost levelled in first-half stoppage time when Jacob Bruun Larsen fed Lucas Pires, who was denied by the feet of Bart Verbruggen at the near post.
However, sloppy defending by the visitors saw them fall 2-0 behind just 67 seconds into the second half. Florentino's sliding challenge unwittingly teed up Ayari, who beat Dubravka with a clever reverse shot.
The visitors almost halved the deficit in the 67th minute, with Loum Tchaouna's header cleared off the line by Kadioglu.
Yet that was as close as they came to getting back into the contest, as Brighton comfortably saw out victory, with Maxim De Cuyper almost adding further gloss to the scoreline when his free-kick rattled a post late on.
Seagulls bounce back
Brighton began 2026 by getting back to winning ways in the Premier League after six games without a victory.
The Seagulls were quick out of the blocks, with Veltman and Dunk both heading opportunities over, and the offside flag denying Koustoulas.
However, the latter played a key role in the opening goal, although he knew little about it. Indeed, he unwittingly got in the way of Ayari's shot, diverting the ball into the path of Rutter, who made no mistake.
Ayari then added a second just after half-time, and it was more than enough to put the game beyond their opponents.
Despite their recent winless streak, Brighton remain solid at home, where they have now lost just one of their last 14 Premier League games, and that form will prove crucial if they are to keep pushing up the table.
Successive trips to Manchester are next on the Seagulls’ agenda. They face Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday, before taking on Manchester United in the FA Cup third round four days later.
Clarets slip to another defeat
Burnley have now lost nine of their last 11 Premier League games, and this was an opportunity missed for Parker’s side.
Following Nottingham Forest’s defeat at Aston Villa earlier on Saturday, this was a chance to move within three points of Sean Dyche's side in 17th place.
The Clarets were also unbeaten in all their six Premier League visits to Amex Stadium, but they failed to heed the hosts’ early warnings, with Rutter eventually capitalising.
Burnley’s sloppy play outside their own penalty area then gifted Ayari a second goal, and almost a third to Koustoulas soon after.
The visitors could have sparked a late rally had Tchaouna's header not been blocked on the line, but in the end, Brighton were generally comfortable in seeing out the victory.
Parker’s side will desperately seek a positive response at the very least when they welcome Man Utd to Turf Moor on Wednesday night. The Clarets then have a distraction from the Premier League when they host Millwall in the FA Cup on 10 January.
Club reports
Brighton report | Burnley report
What the managers said
Fabian Hurzeler: "We played a good game. It was not a great game but a good performance. We scored goals, kept a clean sheet, worked quite well against the ball, and made some more chances, so overall we are pleased with the performance today. We all know that there are still things we can improve so we have to keep on pushing."
Scott Parker: "I thought we were really poor. We didn't deserve anything from the game. It was a big shift from our performance against Newcastle the other night. We lacked a bit of belief and that was worrying.
"While in the game at 1-0, I didn't ever feel we had a massive chance. I'm searching for something that wasn't there today. We lacked something massively and we need to fix that.
Next PL fixtures
Key facts
At 18 years and 218 days old, Kostoulas became the youngest Greek player to start a Premier League match, overtaking Charalampos Mavrias’ previous record of 19 years and 205 days old for Sunderland against Arsenal in September 2013.
Pascal Gross made his first appearance for Brighton since the final day of the 2023/24 season, one year and 229 days ago – the German is one of two players with 200+ Premier League appearances for Brighton (229, also Lewis Dunk - 285) and has more goal involvements in the league than any other player for the Seagulls (30 goals and 45 assists).
James Milner’s appearance means that he has now played a Premier League game in each of the last 25 calendar years since 2002, the longest such run. Only two other players have played in more than 20 separate years in the competition (Ryan Giggs – 24 and Gareth Barry – 21).
Brighton recorded their first Premier League win in seven outings (D3 L3 before today), with the Seagulls now having lost just one of their last 14 home games in the league (W7 D6).