'Brighton Hoping For More Of The Same At Leicester'
- Brighton & Hove Albion are the visitors to King Power Stadium for Wednesday's Emirates FA Cup Fifth Round tie (7:30pm kick-off)
- The Seagulls beat Newport County and Blackpool to reach this stage of the competition, while Leicester saw off Stoke City and Brentford
- Albion are currently on a run of five games unbeaten in the Premier League, including three victories
- The Athletic's Andy Naylor gave his pre-match lowdown on the away side, revealing that they will take confidence from recent results
The Seagulls travel to King Power Stadium on Wednesday evening (7:30pm kick-off) looking to progress into the quarter-finals of the Emirates FA Cup and Naylor believes they will take confidence from their recent form.
Seven points from a possible nine has eased the pressure on the south coast club, who can now start to look up rather than down, but with another big fixture to come at the weekend, there is still expected to be some rotation of the squad for this fifth round tie on Filbert Way.
"Graham Potter will make changes, they've had a really hectic schedule, this will be their third away game in the space of a week," the journalist explained when speaking to LCFC TV ahead of the clash against Leicester City.
"They've had two really good results, obviously winning at Anfield, 1-0 away at Liverpool was fantastic and then they went to Burnley, a bit of a grind, different sort of game, but managed to get a point from a 1-1 draw there.
"They played Tottenham at home the previous Sunday and beat them 1-0 so it's been a really teasing schedule. They've got Aston Villa at home back in the Premier League on Saturday, so I think there will be a few changes to the starting line-up."
Brighton's current position of 15th in the Premier League, following a run of five games unbeaten, means there is now much more confidence surrounding the club. Naylor believes it is just rewards for their impressive displays during the 2020/21 campaign to date.
He explained: "It's had a huge impact on their situation at the bottom of the table, they've now opened up a 10-point gap above the relegation zone, but it's really a fruition of the way they've been playing all season.
"Their performances have been very good throughout the season, they just haven't been getting the results that have reflected those performances and they've sort of come in a bit of a rush. The 11 points from five games has lifted the mood of everyone. Supporters were anxious before the run, less so now, so they are entering this tie in a good place really."
Albion's road to the fifth round involved a penalty shootout victory over League 2 Newport County at Rodney Parade, before seeing off League 1 opposition, Blackpool, in the previous round. Potter is not expected to drastically change his team selection approach for this encounter, either.
"It's interesting, Graham Potter has actually used the FA Cup," Naylor added, discussing the 45-year-old's approach to cup competitions. "Looking back to the third round they had a tricky looking tie away to Newport on a difficult pitch and he actually played a pretty strong team there.
"It was stronger than most people anticipated going into that game and I think that was part of building some momentum with results, because the performances had been good.
"They squeezed through that on penalties and then beat Blackpool at home as well. And again he played a pretty strong team, so I think he'll make changes but I don't think we'll see 10 or 11 changes.
"We might see five or six, compared to the team that drew up at Burnley at the weekend. There's a good chance that Aaron Connelly will start again, he started at Burnley, which was the first time in a little while, he'd had a hamstring injury.
"There's also a chance that we'll see Percy Tau again, a South African who they finally brought over in January after having three loan spells in Belgium.
"He started at Newport, he played against Blackpool, he played in the Premier League in a narrow 1-0 defeat at Manchester City where he made his full debut. He came on at Leeds and has been an unused sub a few times more recently."
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