Sussex

Noel Sliney
BBC Sport senior journalist

Crystal Palace have regained momentum with three successive wins across as many competitions and are a point ahead of fierce rivals Brighton & Hove Albion heading into Sunday's Premier League meeting (14:00 GMT). BBC Sport looks at some of the talking points going into the game.

Palace back on a roll

Palace initially struggled to regroup after their 19-match unbeaten run was ended away to Everton a month ago. But after four games without a win, they have rebuilt confidence by beating Liverpool in the Carabao Cup and then Brentford in the league before turning on the style during Thursday's 3-1 European victory over Dutch side AZ.

An unrelenting fixture schedule has left little time for manager Oliver Glasner to work with the squad on the training ground and the Austrian admits his main focus is on rest and recovery. "We have to be careful in the training sessions they don't sprint too much because they have to sprint in the games," he said. "We have to prioritise."

Despite the limited time to train, Crystal Palace remain as well drilled as ever under Glasner.

They average less possession than any Premier League side bar Burnley, but their ruthless counter-attacking style continues to provide high-quality chances – the Eagles rank top for expected goals.

Both Palace and Brighton also rank in the Premier League top five this season for shots on target and big chances scored, only trailing clubs with vastly superior resources.

The Eagles are unbeaten in 11 home league games (W6, D5), their longest run since an 18-match streak in the Championship between September 2012 and March 2013.

They beat Brighton home and away last season, with the latter encounter at Selhurst Park in April ending with three red cards: two for Palace and one for Albion.

Hurzeler understand fixture's meaning to fans

Brighton, though, haven't suffered consecutive away defeats in this fixture since the 1985-86 and 1986-87 seasons. Current head coach Fabian Hurzeler said he understood the importance of games against Crystal Palace "from the first second" when he attended a 1-1 draw between the sides two seasons ago.

He believes his Brighton team started too passively in both fixtures last season and added: "You can't promise wins but you can promise that you will leave your heart on the pitch. That is what we try to do on Sunday."

With the countdown to the Celebrity Traitors final under way, we asked you which Brighton player or manager - past or present - would make the best traitor and faithful.

Here are some of your comments:

Martin: Traitor would be Danny Welbeck as no-one would suspect him. Faithful would be Lewis Dunk as he could not be a traitor - too loyal.

Greg: Tony Bloom would be great. Either spotting the traitors or, even better, using his poker face to manipulate the faithfuls as a traitor.

Gary: For the three traitors, look no further than three ex-managers who all left in an underhand manner. Gus Poyet, who applied for other jobs while still a Brighton manager. Graham Potter, who left for Chelsea and took the entire coaching staff with him. Roberto de Zerbi, who left over recruitment disagreements despite understanding the club's policy. For a faithful, look no further than Kaoru Mitoma, who loves it at Brighton turning down Saudi money to stay loyal to the Albion.

David: There can only be one traitor - Potter. Chelsea waved their cheque book and he ran as fast as he could. Joao Pedro, for the same reason, must be a close second. Faithful - look no further than Dunk. One-club man who has been the rock for so many years and long may he continue in whatever role possible.

You can watch the final of The Celebrity Traitors live from 21:00 GMT on BBC iPlayer

Millie Sian
BBC Sport journalist

Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler has been speaking to the media before Sunday's Premier League game against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park (kick-off 14:00 GMT).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• On injury news, Hurzeler said he feels like he needs a list at the moment "because there are quite a lot". James Milner, Brajan Gruda and Jack Hinshelwood are still unavailable because of injury.

• On a more positive note, Joel Veltman will be available after recovering from a calf injury. It will be more of a 50-50 decision regarding Kaoru Mitoma, who is "very close" to his return from an ankle injury.

• Hurzeler added: "We will have to monitor how Kaoru is doing in our training sessions and how he is doing over the next two days, then we can have another look." He did not want to completely rule out the left winger.

• When asked about the importance of the 'A23 derby', he replied: "I understood from the first second. We have to promise the supporters we will try to do everything to win it. At the end of the day, you cannot promise wins but you can promise to leave your heart on the pitch."

• There is one point separating Brighton and Crystal Palace at the moment, but Hurzler is not "worrying about the table too much at the minute" and he is instead focused on "controlling emotions" of the derby.

• He added: "It's going to be really important to be in the right place mentally. If you're too emotional, you can't make the right decisions. If you're not emotional enough, you won't be committing to duels or keeping your intensity up. We need to find the right balance."

• Palace's development under Oliver Glasner has been "impressive" and he has "a lot of respect" for the Austrian manager.

• On what he expects from the Eagles, Hurzeler said: "They are very stable. They are difficult to beat. They don't concede a lot of goals. They seem to have a consistent starting XI so they can build lots of connections on the pitch, which is a huge advantage for them."

• He added: "We will fight for another clean sheet. We will need to defend set-pieces well and do well with our counter-pressing because they are really strong when they win the ball. They try to attack fast with their wingers and they are one of the best set-piece teams."

• When asked if he would swap Danny Welbeck for Jean-Philippe Mateta, he replied: "I wouldn't swap him for any player in the world. He is a great leader beside the pitch and a great role model so we are very blessed that he is here. He is in outstanding condition, so no I wouldn't change him."

• The squad have done a show of hands on whether Welbeck should receive an England call-up and "every hand went up".

Hear more from Hurzeler on BBC Sounds

Follow all of Thursday's Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news

Listen to commentary of Crystal Palace v Brighton on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra 3 at 14:00 on Sunday