The Seagulls, who are currency third, play Wigan at the DW Stadium today.
Brighton manager Chris Hughton
Newcastle and Norwich came into the Championship season as red hot favourites to bounce straight back to the Premier League. At this present time, those predictions look to be on track as they occupy the top two places on the table. It is the team below in Brighton that have gone about their business in a quiet and efficient manner.
While some teams base their gameplan on all out attack, the Seagulls are a lot more measured, and defensive structure can be attributed for a reason behind their success. So far this season they have compiled a league best eight clean sheets in their 13 games and have only conceded nine goals which is the joint lowest with Ipswich.
Brighton & Hove Albion manager Chris Hughton
To the credit of Chris Hughton, he has been able to strike a nice balance between defence and attack. While Brighton are unlikely to score four and five goals on a regular basis, their attack also operates in a efficient manner.
Anthony Knockaert celebrates scoring the first goal for Brighton
At home they are open and attacking averaging the most shots on goal in the division(16.3), and the third most dribbles (12.9). Away from home they are a lot more pragmatic only averaging 11.2 shots on goal and their dribbling average also dips to 7.7. This cautious approach has not adversely affected their away record as they have collected nine points from their six games, only losing once to Brentford.
Consistency across a whole season is so often a reason behind a team winning promotion to the Premier League. While there is bound to be peaks and troughs, it is essential to keep them to a minimum. Brighton lost two games in a row to Newcastle and Brentford earlier in the season, but they have responded in fine fashion and are currently unbeaten in their past seven league games.
Lewis Dunk scores the first goal for Brighton
Today they play Wigan, who, while being second last in the table are on a unbeaten run of four games. Hughton and his players will certainly not be taking the Latics for granted, having learnt a valuable lesson which saw them drop two precious points to Preston North End last week. With that performance in the back of their minds, expect Brighton to be professional enough to get the job done with the minimum of fuss.
Prediction: Brighton 2-0 Wigan
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