Sunday will serve up the 142nd instalment of the A23 derby, when Brighton & Hove Albion welcome Crystal Palace to the Amex in the Premier League.
Both touted as European challengers at the start of the season, it has been a much more successful start for the Seagulls, as opposed to the Eagles, but Fabian Hurzeler's men have struggled in recent weeks.
Match preview
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Brighton enter the weekend currently on their longest winless run under Hurzeler, having now gone three games without victory, seeing them fall to seventh.
Being unable to see off teams fighting at the bottom could be very costly come May, as Hurzeler saw his side throw two points away in the final five minutes away to Leicester City last week.
Yankuba Minteh's goal 10 minutes from time looked as though it had sealed a comfortable three points on the road, but Jamie Vardy and Bobby Decordova-Reid both netted in the dying stages to salvage a point for the Foxes.
After only managing a 1-1 draw with Southampton in their last home outing, it means Brighton have now failed to win any of their previous five games against teams starting the day in the bottom four.
Palace are another club in the bottom four ahead of this one, but at home, Brighton have remained largely consistent, being one of the three teams yet to suffer defeat on their own patch in the Premier League - along with Arsenal and Brentford.
Keeping a clean sheet would go a long way to helping them end that concerning run of results against weaker sides, because despite having plenty of firepower in attack, they have now both scored and conceded in their last seven games, and since the start of last season, they have done so 37 times in 53 matches.
In terms of facing Palace, the Seagulls have won two consecutive home games against the Eagles for the first time since the 1980s, so they should be confident of extending that, especially after winning 4-1 in this fixture last season.
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Palace are winless in six against Brighton, but enter the fixture in a much better place than where they were a few weeks ago, moving clear of the bottom three.
Those sides in the relegation zone all lost last weekend, while Palace held champions Manchester City to a 2-2 draw, moving them four points clear of trouble.
Manager Oliver Glasner may have some frustrations though, seeing his side take the lead twice, and not capitalise on City playing the final stages with 10 men.
The win away to Ipswich Town last midweek was the most important result though, after also holding Aston Villa and Newcastle United to draws, meaning they have now lost just one of their last eight games in all competitions.
Away form often deserts Palace, but they enter the weekend unbeaten in three away from Selhurst Park, and could win back-to-back games on the road in the Premier League for the first time since the 2022-23 season.
Team News
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Danny Welbeck could be reinstated to the starting XI in the place of Evan Ferguson after missing the defeat at Fulham with injury and only being able to play 20 minutes against Leicester last time out.
Hurzeler was reluctant to say whether most of his injury doubts will be fit to play, instead giving out percentages of how likely it is most of them will feature.
Joel Veltman was given a 50% chance; Ferdi Kadioglu 20%; Jack Hinshelwood 40% and James Milner just 10%, suggesting that potentially none of them will feature from the start here.
Palace should be able to welcome summer recruit Chadi Riad back to the team in the coming weeks after he featured for the Under-21s a few days ago following three months out with a knee injury.
Joel Ward has picked up a calf injury in the week and looks set to miss out, along with Matheus Franca, who will not be back until 2025, but Adam Wharton still has an outside chance of making it, even though he is a major doubt.
After a strong performance against Man City last weekend, there is little to suggest Glasner will change any personnel, so the Eagles may remain unchanged, unless there are any late injury casualties.
Brighton & Hove Albion possible starting lineup:
Verbruggen; Lamptey, Van Hecke, Dunk, Estupinan; Baleba, Ayari; Minteh, Joao Pedro, Mitoma; Welbeck
Crystal Palace possible starting lineup:
Henderson; Chalobah, Lacroix, Guehi; Munoz, Hughes, Lerma, Mitchell; Sarr, Mateta, Eze
We say: Brighton & Hove Albion 1-1 Crystal Palace
Brighton made an explosive start to the season, but things have gone slightly flat in recent weeks, with defensive fragility costing them at important times.
Palace have become a much more cohesive unit after a very troubling start, and now appear to be one of the toughest teams to beat in the division at present, and should offer a stern challenge to their rivals here.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Andrew Delaney
