After cruising to a 4-0 victory at home to West Ham United, Brighton had to settle for a share of the spoils against Leeds United last weekend, with the Seagulls pegged back on two occasions in a 2-2 draw at Elland Road.
Patrick Bamford cancelled out Alexis Mac Allister’s opener towards the end of the first half before Jack Harrison scored at both ends after the interval, with an unfortunate own goal – aided by Kaoru Mitoma’s work down the flank and Solly March’s movement inside the six-yard box – followed by a sweet curling strike beyond Jason Steele to restore parity.
Roberto De Zerbi believes that his Brighton side dropped two points in West Yorkshire, but they still remain in the hunt to qualify for Europe, with their solitary point claimed helping them move up once place to seventh in the Premier League following Fulham’s defeat at home to Arsenal.
The Seagulls head into Wednesday’s clash hoping to put aside the disappointment from their last meeting with Crystal Palace in which a “human error” by VAR wrongly disallowed a first-half goal from Pervis Estupinan.
Brighton dominated proceedings with 75% possession and 17 shots, but James Tomkins capitalised on a mistake from Robert Sanchez to equalise six minutes after March had opened the scoring.
Brighton have failed to win each of their last seven encounters with Palace, including five draws, but having won four of their last five matches at the Amex,
De Zerbi and co will be confident of success on Wednesday as they bid to close the nine-point gap to fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur, who have played three games more than the Seagulls.
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Patrick Vieira’s men have now gone three successive games without a single shot on target – an unwanted Premier League first since records began in 2003-04 – and the pressure is beginning to mount on the Frenchman as his Palace side sit just three points above the drop zone heading into the final 12 matches of the campaign.
Significant improvements up front and resilience at the back is required for Palace if they wish to come through back-to-back fixtures with Brighton and league leaders Arsenal unscathed, before preparing for a favourable-looking run of six successive games against teams below them in the Premier League table after the international break.
While goals have been hard to come by for the Eagles in recent weeks, they have managed to find the net in nine of their last 10 meetings against Brighton and they are unbeaten in their last three visits to the Amex, which bodes well for Vieira’s men as they endeavour to claim their first victory of 2023 on Wednesday
