Rivals Brighton and Hove Albion and Crystal Palace will renew hostilities for the first time in over four years at the Amex Stadium on Tuesday night.
These two unlikely rivals have not met since May 2013, when two goals from Wilfried Zaha earned Palace a famous victory in the Championship play-off semi-final second leg. Brighton will be desperate to avenge that defeat this midweek, but manager Chris Hughton will know that his side find themselves in a good position as December approaches. Indeed, despite Saturday's 1-0 loss to Manchester United - in which they performed well and, on another day, could have registered a draw - Albion find themselves in ninth place having amassed 16 points from 13 games. They have looked very well organised defensively, conceding fewer goals than Arsenal and Liverpool, but there are also signs that Hughton has evolved from his overly cautious approach at Norwich City.
Palace finally collected their second victory of the Premier League campaign at the weekend, beating Stoke City 2-1 thanks to Mamadou Sakho's late winner. The centre-back's tap-in came at the end of what was a rather flat performance from the hosts at Selhurst Park, but Roy Hodgson will be delighted that his players still found a way to win after a run of games in which the Eagles generally got less than they deserved. The hope for Palace is that the weekend's triumph proves to be a turning point, but it is vital that they keep things ticking over by - at the very least - avoiding defeat on Tuesday.
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Palace remain without long-term absentee Connor Wickham (knee), while Lee Chung-yong has been struggling with a muscle problem and Yohan Cabaye could miss out after limping off at the end of the victory over Stoke. Brighton, meanwhile, are still missing Steve Sidwell (back), but Hughton has no fresh injury concerns and could stick with the starting XI which began the loss to United on Saturday afternoon.
This is likely to be a tight, low-scoring game between two teams who will not want to give anything away. A draw could be the most likely outcome here.
