Brighton had scored all four goals by the 31st minute against Aston Villa on the 2026–27 Premier League opening weekend.
Brighton’s 4–0 victory was played on Sunday 23 August 2026. The defining feature was not merely the final score but the extraordinary speed with which Brighton built it: all four goals arrived during the opening 31 minutes.
That first-half burst placed Brighton among a small group of Premier League teams to score four times before half-time in the opening match of a season. Historical comparisons cited after the game included Bolton in 2001–02, Manchester United in 2006–07 and Liverpool in 2019–20.
The 31-minute figure is not the same as “by half-time.” Brighton were already four goals ahead well before the interval. The match also included a red card for Aston Villa’s João Gomes, making Villa’s opening half one of the most difficult in the round.