With the January transfer window now in the rearview, Brighton and Hove Albion fans will be putting all that nonsense and 22 year old Brajan Gruda’s deadline day departure and our failed bid for FC Koln’s Said El Mala behind us, and refocusing squarely on the remainder of the Premier League campaign that lies ahead.
Gaffer Fabian Hurzeler currently has us in 13th place in the top flight table with seven wins and 10 draws from the opening 24 matches.
The second half of the season from February onwards is always the business end of a campaign though and in spite of our incredibly poor recent form, it should not be forgotten that we are only nine points off Liam Rosenior’s Chelsea side who occupy fifth place.
Another potential European adventure and nights under the floodlights are most certainly not off the cards for us just yet, but for now fans watching EPL online for their regular fix will quite happily make do with the action that remains this year.
However, for the Seagulls to have any kind of chance of flying to the continent our form simply has to change.
With Crystal Palace up next, our gaffer is determined that we will now turn things around and lay down a marker again, and Oliver ‘The Moaner’ Glasner’s struggling Eagles are the perfect side for us to do that against.
Sitting just two points behind us in the bottom half of the table, Palace look like a team that are imploding from the inside with wantaway players and manager, but three points as we return to Amex Stadium soil would make a marked difference to the look of the table, and help nicely open up a better gap on those behind us as we look forward.
Hurzeler backed the ‘character’ of his team to bounce back against the side who have only picked up one win in the last eleven matches, insisting that everyone in the dressing room has been ‘frustrated’ and ‘disappointed’ with how things played out against Fulham and Everton.
Ultimately though, everyone knew that they could not do anything about the past, so it was all about ensuring that we returned to winning ways in the future.
Following the now 32 year old’s arrival at the club back in the summer of 2024, he is actually yet to taste his first victory over the Selhurst Park outfit and he was adamant that he would love that just as much as the fans would should the team go on to secure victory in Sunday afternoon’s clash.
Not least, Brighton fans share a certain historic rivalry with our upcoming opponents, and that would make the win here even sweeter, especially if it helped to aid us turning the season around and making a late, and somewhat unexpected, surge for the European spots again – the fact it would help push them closer towards a really troubling season.
As the weekend edges nearer we will simply have to see whether or not our current injury situation shows a slight improvement or not, as being able to call on the full squad for the 2025/26 run in would obviously only improve our chances of a solid top half finish once again.