Brentford are set to take on Brighton and Hove Albion in their second Premier League Summer Series game in America.

The two clubs played out an entertaining 3-3 draw at the Amex Stadium earlier this year - after the Bees won 2-0 at Gtech Community Stadium in October - and will go head-to-head again at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

We spoke with The Athletic's Andy Naylor to get his thoughts ahead of the pre-season fixture in the USA.

Heading to America is not a bad way to start pre-season preparations for Brighton. How much is the club looking forward to being part of the inaugural Premier League Summer Series?

From Brighton’s perspective, it widens their reach in the US. It is primarily about the football and preparing the team for a Europa League campaign as well, but they are a club sponsored by American Express, who have a big sponsorship deal with Nike as well, so they have got a strong American backing. It works both from a football perspective and a commercial perspective.

The Seagulls have done a lot of business nice and early this summer. Alexis Mac Allister’s move to Liverpool went through without issue and, at the time of speaking, they have signed four players, with a reported outlay of just over £45 million. What have you made of their transfer dealings so far?

They got the deal for Joao Pedro - which, at £30m, was £10m more than they had paid for previous record signing Adam Webster - done very early and, with James Milner, we all know about him; he can play pretty much everywhere and brings a wealth of experience, not to mention fitness and professionalism.

Mahmoud Dahoud is an interesting one, too - he came from Borussia Dortmund on a free. He is another midfielder who was really regarded as a star in Germany; he has lost his way a little bit recently, but it looks as though his signing could prove to be a really shrewd piece of business.

Bart Verbruggen is a very promising goalkeeper and a Netherlands under-21 international, who they have paid just over £16m for. I would say they have done some good business so far.

A lot of the talk around the summer window has been dominated by Alexis Mac Allister and Moises Caicedo, the midfield double pivot from last season that worked so well. The former has already gone to Liverpool and, at the time of speaking, I think there is a pretty good chance Caicedo will go too, probably to Chelsea, though that is dependent on whether or not they reach Brighton’s asking price.

That creates quite a big gap because they are losing two key players from the same area of the pitch.

I think Caicedo will be a bigger miss, and the reason I say that is because he has got a rarer skillset, particularly with his anticipation in breaking up opponents’ attacks. As gifted as Mac Allister is, Brighton have quite a few options in the squad already that can cater for his loss.

They have got players who, for different reasons, have not had much game time under Roberto De Zerbi: Steven Alzate, who has been out on loan, Jakub Moder, who has had a long-term knee injury, Jeremy Sarmiento, who is a promising Ecuador international and has had a lot of injury problems as well. They are quite well stocked and have brought in the aforementioned Milner and Dahoud, who can play in multiple roles.

It is difficult when you lose big players, but that is where Brighton are at and it reflects their progress that there are now big clubs interested in signing their players. It is all about how you deal with that and the forward planning, which they are very good at.

Looking ahead to the club’s maiden Europa League campaign, how important is squad depth and the experience of James Milner going to be this season?

We are talking about a minimum of six extra matches this season, with lots of travelling and Thursday games, which have an impact on the following Sunday in the Premier League, so there is a clear need for plenty of depth in the squad.

At the back end of last season, when they were pursuing European qualification, their results were inconsistent and the squad was really stretched because of the combination of fatigue and a lot of injuries.

It is about getting the balance because what you do not want is to have a bloated squad, where players are hanging around and not getting opportunities. But their depth was pretty good anyway going into this window.

They have got an awful lot of young players with huge potential, mixed with a core group of senior pros, and they have also got players who can play in multiple positions, which has been a big part of their identity. For example, Pascal Gross and Caicedo - recognised as central midfielders - filling in at right-back under De Zerbi and actually doing it really well.

If you had to single out a Brighton player to keep a close eye on this season, who would it be and why?

It is going to be really interesting to see how Kaoru Mitoma develops in his second season in English football because he had a blistering debut campaign. He really shone, with goals, assists, direct runs and pace.

He really burst onto the scene and had that surprise factor last season, but teams and opponents are well aware of him now.

Brighton paid £3m for him and, even if you were being conservative, his value is already 10 times that, which is just another example of Brighton’s canny recruitment.

How are Brighton likely to set up?

Essentially, for the majority of last season, De Zerbi’s go-to formation was a 4-2-3-1 but, within that, the no.9 does not really operate as a traditional no.9 and tends to operate as a false nine, dropping in, linking up with the midfielders.

In terms of style, they play out from the back, but in a way that nobody else does, really, in terms of precision and the goalkeeper being the starting point in that process.

Playing out from the back is not new, but De Zerbi has taken it on another step from the way they were playing under Graham Potter.

The last competitive meeting in April produced an enthralling 3-3 draw. For the sake of consistency only, what’s your score prediction for this one?

I have literally no idea and, frankly, I am long enough in the tooth to know that friendly results do not matter one jot when it comes to the real thing.

On countless occasions, I have seen Brighton have a really good pre-season and started poorly - and vice-versa. Let’s say 1-1.