Ben & Rob's preview - Brighton

N17 Live presenter Ben Haines and Club commentator Rob Daly look ahead to this evening's Premier League clash against Brighton (7.30pm)...

Rob Daly

"On Manchester United, I felt it was a good performance. It was one of the best indicators so far that Antonio Conte’s methods are getting through to the players, but the team was undone by individual brilliance from Ronaldo. It’s hard to be philosophical about it, as it was a defeat to a direct rival for the top four. There are 11 games to go, 45 points on the board with 33 up for grabs. I think getting 70 gives Spurs a real chance of claiming a Champions League place but it means having to finish the season very strongly. It adds greater weight to the importance of Brighton. They started well, I felt, against Liverpool but faded before half-time in a 2-0 loss on Saturday. Robert Sanchez was certainly fortunate to avoid a red card with that challenge on Luis Diaz as he scored the opener. They tried Tariq Lamptey as a winger in a front three at Newcastle, but he was redeployed at right-back against Liverpool where he is more valuable. The issue is not taking as many of their chances as they should and they’ve drawn a large number of games. No fresh injuries from Old Trafford is good news. I wonder if Antonio will make a couple of tweaks here and there, but I don’t think it’ll be four or five changes from United. He’s looking for stability and sticking with a similar XI certainly seems to be his aim from game to game."

Ben Haines

"It’s really tough to get stuck too far into the United game because I’m not sure we learned lots about both teams that we didn’t already know - two teams struggling for consistency showing both their strengths and weaknesses in and out of possession. Ultimately the game was settled on moments and unfortunately Ronaldo popped up with the clutch moment and we were left kicking ourselves. The performance and the fact we dominated becomes less important for two reasons. Firstly, because as Rob said, it’s a direct rival for the top four. Secondly, because we’re already in a position where we know we can dominate territory and possession, you do get the impression that once we can cut through teams that sit deep we’ll be incredibly dangerous. I’m not chalking off any hopes of top four despite seeing plenty in the media desperate to write us out of it. Weirdly, I think that this is when we are at our most dangerous. The game against Arsenal, whenever it falls on the calendar, might end up as a shoot-out if things fall our way over the next few weeks. But that has to begin tonight. Brighton-wise, I’m not sure that we’ll face the same issues that we did against United. Thankfully, they will look to play and be confident in possession which plays a little into our hands. They are the XG nightmare - dramatically underperforming against the opportunities that they create. Fingers crossed, tonight we don’t even give them the chance to be poor in front of goal and we can get back to winning ways to set up a huge Sunday against West Ham."