Brighton & Hove Albion welcome rivals Crystal Palace to the Amex Stadium this afternoon hoping to keep up the scintilating form that sees thenm sitting in 3rd in the Premier League table, having won their last three league games without conceding. Their visitors, meanwhile, have been the picture of inconsistency sitting in 13th in the table, however, they did pick up three points in their last league game against Nottingham Forest last week.

Both sides were in European action in midweek as Fabian Hurzeler's side kicked off their Conference League proper campaign by easing to a 4-0 home win over Kauno Zalgiris as they look to emulate Palace's feat of winning the competition. Pierre Sage's men, meanwhile, were beaten 3-2 away at Lyon in their second Europa League clash.

Thursday's victory over their Lithuanian opponents was Brighton's fifth in a row in all competitions and fourth of those to be accompanied by a clean sheet. So far, only champions Arsenal have conceded as few as the Seagulls' five in the league and they also came into this weekend as the league's top scorers with 18. They know that a win here would move them up to second temporarily ahead of the Gunners' game later today.

Despite that scintilating form, recent history tells us that a win today may be hard to come by as Palace have won on their last two trips to Sussex. The Eagles have been up and down but that defeat away in France in midweek did end a mini three-match unbeaten run in all competitions and they know that if they were to win a third consecutive win on the road to their rivals for the first time, they would be level on pints with sixth-place Brentford in the formative Premier League table.

Team News

Brighton's Pascal Strujik is available after having his red card in last week's win over Sunderland overturned but Ibrahim Osman is a doubt after picking up an injury in midweek.

Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson has missed the last seven games with a foot injury and remains doubtful again today while Jean-Philippe Mateta has not played since picking up a hamstring injury in the first game of the season.