Brighton’s season
Newly promoted Brighton and Hove Albion are enjoying life in the Premier League. One of the lesser talked about team, Brighton have gone about doing their job quietly. For a club whose aim this season certainly will be to survive the relegation, they have done well. After 14 game weeks, Brighton and Hove Albion find themselves on the 10th position on the table with 17 points registered on the table.
They have played decent football so far in the league and have collected four crucial wins, no mean feat for a promoted team in the cutthroat English league. They have been relatively quiet despite their results until a few weeks back when they dispatched Slaven Bilic’s West Ham United side 3-0. Their performance against Manchester United last weekend was more than encouraging as well.
The suspension worries
Manager Chris Hughton has no worries in terms of suspensions and will have an array of players to pick from
The news on injury front
The good news for Brighton and Hove Albion is that they have everyone fit barring two players. Midfielder Steve Sidwell is the only confirmed player for Chris Hughton’s Brighton side set to miss the game with a back injury. Gaetan Bong, who has a knock is also set to miss the match.
Manager’s word
Chris Hughton was optimistic on his team’s performance in the derby against Crystal Palace:
“If I look at the pluses and the minuses when you know you haven’t played as well as you have been or you can do, firstly you’ve got to make sure you don’t lose the game.
“Probably it was a little bit like that.
“We gave the ball away more often than I’ve seen us in the last few games put together but sometimes that can happen.
“It might just be the volume of games, coming down from the game on Saturday, but around that, if you can still not lose that’s a positive.”
Team news
Here is how Brighton will look to line up in a 4-4-1-1 formation.
Defence
Mathew Ryan is expected in goal again for Brighton. The centre of the defence is likely to consist of the solid pairing of Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy. Bruno is expected at right back with the left back position likely to go to Markus Suttner with Gaetan Bong out injured.
Midfield
Dale Stephens is likely to be one of the centre midfielders with Davy Propper likely to be the other one. The impressive Anthony Knockaert is expected to play on the right wing with Jose Izquierdo on the left wing for Brighton and Hove Albion.
Attack
Pascal Groß is expected to play as the withdrawn forward with Glenn Murray expected to lead the line.
