How strong is Brighton's injury-hit squad?...Graham Potter will find out very soon

For there is an injury and availability crisis brewing at the Amex. The treatment room is busier than a Christmas Party in Downing Street with Lewis Dunk, Adam Webster, Adam Lallana, Leandro Trossard, Danny Welbeck, Steve Alzate and Jeremy Sarmiento all ruled out for varying lengths of time.

Shane Duffy misses the Albion's next game through suspension having picked up his fifth booking of the campaign in the 1-1 draw at Southampton. Joel Veltman is one yellow away from a ban of his own.

Potter has in effect had the spine of the team who were flying high in the top six back in September ripped out. Webster and Dunk at the back, Lallana in the middle, Welbeck and Trossard up top. Most sides would struggle to cope with the absence of five key players; let alone five key players at the heart of their strongest line up.

And yet Brighton could still name an XI good enough to compete with most Premier League opponents. Trying to second guess what Potter will do is a task harder than finding a weed-free pavement in Brighton & Hove, but let us for a second imagine that the replacements for the absentees are obvious.

Dutch international, Ajax youth product and one-time Champions League semi finalist Veltman joins proven Premier League performer Dan Burn at centre back. As far as full backs go, not many clubs outside of the big six possess quality like Tariq Lamptey and Marc Cucurella.

Yves Bissouma is one of the finest holding midfielders in the top flight. Pascal Gross has the second most assists of any German to have played in the Premier League after Mesut Ozil.

Ahead of those two, Jakub Moder is a full Poland international. Enock Mwepu has shown his class with goals at Liverpool and Leicester and an assist against Manchester City. Solly March was arguably the Albion's best player last season before injury struck and would be one of the first names on the team sheet this time around were it not for the outstanding form Cucurella has been in.

And that leaves Neal Maupay to lead the line. Despite his detractors, Maupay is on course to score 15 Premier League goals this season at his current run rate. Only elite forwards like Mo Salah and Harry Kane tend to manage more.

Even with so many players ruled out, Argentine international Alexis Mac Allister is on the bench. That tells you the depth that Potter is working with - and is testament to the investment from Tony Bloom in both new signings and an academy which continues to churn out exciting talent. Brighton are in rude health.

Which takes me back again - sorry - to Potter's comments post-Leeds. You remember them, Potter effectively saying he needed an Albion history lesson to understand why fans of a club who have spent most of its history being not-very-good were booing after a frustrating

0-0 draw against opponents 16th in the league.

So, here's a quick history lesson for our Graham. There was a time when losing Danny Cullip and Guy Butters meant having to play Robbie Pethick out-of-position alongside a 17-year-old Adam Hinshelwood.

If Glenn Murray and Nicky Forster were ever ruled out at the same time, Craig Davies and Chris Holroyd became the Albion's source of goals. A flu-ravaged squad went to Swansea City away in 1999 and Micky Adams was left with a toss up between naming five teenagers on the bench or registering himself and assistant Alan Cork as players to fill the spots.

What the Albion used to be like 10, 15 or 20 years ago - when the choice was naming geriatrics or kids as substitutes - is not that relevant to 2021, when Potter can lose eight players and still put out a side full of internationals with a value easily exceeding £100 million.

There are no easy game in the Premier League, as Brighton's current winless streak of 10 matches proves. And December looks fiendishly difficult with fixtures against Spurs, Wolves, Manchester United and Chelsea to come.

Potter though still has plenty of quality available to him. Now is the time for the strongest squad Brighton have ever had to prove it.