Manchester Utd v Brighton & Hove Albion

Brighton were barely a week old when Newton Heath were already veterans of twenty-three years.

Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club was established on 24 June 1901, initially playing at the County Ground before settling at the Goldstone Ground in Hove. Manchester United, then known as Newton Heath, had already been playing since 1878 and would adopt their current name the following year. The two clubs occupied different tiers of English football for much of the early twentieth century, rarely crossing paths in competitive fixtures.

United had claimed back-to-back honours by 1909, while Brighton were still years from Football League membership.

Manchester United won the First Division title in 1908 and followed it with their first FA Cup in 1909. Brighton, meanwhile, were competing in the Southern Football League and would not join the Football League until 1920. The gulf between the two clubs was vast, and meaningful encounters were decades away.

Brighton went from the Third Division to sharing a league with Manchester United in just two seasons.

Under the ambitious ownership of Mike Bamber and management of Peter Taylor and then Alan Mullery, Brighton climbed from the Third Division to the First Division between 1977 and 1979. For the first time, the Seagulls were sharing a league with Manchester United. Their first top-flight meeting came in the 1979-80 season, giving Brighton supporters a taste of the big time at Old Trafford.

Five days after Smith should have won it, United put four past Brighton without reply.

The 1983 FA Cup Final remains the defining chapter in this fixture's history. Brighton, managed by Jimmy Melia, faced Ron Atkinson's Manchester United at Wembley on 21 May. Gordon Smith had a late chance to win it for Brighton, but Gary Bailey saved. The match ended 2-2. The replay, held five days later, was a different story entirely: United won 4-0, with Bryan Robson scoring twice and Norman Whiteside and Arnold Muhren also on the scoresheet. The moment Gordon Smith missed has become one of English football's great what-ifs. Radio commentator Peter Jones's cry of "And Smith must score" entered the lexicon. For Brighton fans, it still stings.

Relegated the same season they reached Wembley; Brighton would not face United in the league again for 34 years.

In a cruel twist, Brighton were relegated from the First Division at the end of the same 1982-83 season in which they reached the FA Cup Final. The club then entered a long decline, dropping to the third tier and nearly going out of existence in the late 1990s. Competitive meetings with Manchester United became a distant memory. The two sides would not face each other in the league for 34 years.

Fourteen years without a proper home; the Amex finally gave Brighton the base they had lacked since Goldstone.

The opening of the Falmer Stadium (now the American Express Stadium) in 2011 marked a turning point for Brighton. Under Tony Bloom's ownership, the club had a proper home for the first time since leaving the Goldstone Ground in 1997. With Chris Hughton appointed as manager in 2014, Brighton mounted a serious promotion challenge that would eventually bring them back to the top flight and, with it, regular fixtures against Manchester United.

Thirty-four years out of the top flight ended in 2017, and Brighton's return to Old Trafford brought Mourinho's United and memories of 1983.

Brighton won promotion to the Premier League in 2017 under Chris Hughton, ending a 34-year absence from the top division. Their first league visit to Old Trafford in the 2017-18 season ended in a 1-0 defeat, but the fixture was back on the calendar. José Mourinho's United were the hosts, and the occasion carried echoes of 1983 for the travelling supporters.

Pascal Gross scored both goals as Brighton announced their arrival on football's top table at Old Trafford.

On the opening day of the 2022-23 Premier League season, Brighton beat Manchester United 2-1 at Old Trafford. It was a result that signalled just how far the Seagulls had come under Graham Potter and then Roberto De Zerbi. Pascal Gross scored both goals. The result set the tone for a difficult campaign for Erik ten Hag's side in its early weeks, while Brighton went on to qualify for European competition for the first time in their history.

Brighton's sixth-place finish turned a nostalgic fixture into a meeting of genuine European rivals.

Brighton finished sixth in the 2022-23 Premier League, qualifying for the Europa League. Under Roberto De Zerbi, the Seagulls played some of the most admired football in the division. Their meetings with Manchester United were no longer David versus Goliath encounters but genuine contests between two sides with European ambitions. The fixture had been transformed from a nostalgic curiosity into a meaningful Premier League rivalry.

Few clubs win at Old Trafford with any regularity; Brighton have managed it.

Manchester United versus Brighton at Old Trafford now carries a competitive edge that would have seemed improbable a generation ago. Brighton have won at Old Trafford in the Premier League era, something only a handful of clubs manage with any regularity. For hospitality guests, the fixture offers the atmosphere of a ground steeped in history against opponents who refuse to be overawed by it. The Theatre of Dreams remains one of English football's great stages, and Brighton have shown they belong on it.