Roberto De Zerbi wants an 'aggressive' Brighton team for derby game against Crystal Palace

Albion travel to Selhurst Park tomorrow for the A23 derby unbeaten in 2023, having won five of their last six games in all competitions, scoring 17 goals in the process.

Despite this incredible run of form, Brighton have only won two of their ten league meetings with Palace since been promoted to the Premier League in 2017.

Tomorrow will be De Zerbi’s first taste of the fixture and the Brighton boss said he wants his players to embrace the emotion of the game.

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The Italian said: “I live for these games and it's an honour to play these games. We have to be clear to play this type of game with our quality. We must play a bold game, an aggressive game but I don’t want to lose our quality and our style of play.

"We are Brighton and the first part of the season has been fantastic in terms of results and in terms of quality of play. And we have to continue in this way. We won’t want to forget our style but tomorrow is a different game.

"Emotions are the most important part of football and we have to feel the emotion in football. But we have to be clear and focused on the game - on our quality and on our style of play. But we have to feel that it is a different game.”

Their opponents have been on a dreadful run of form of late, winning just one of their last nine games, but manager Patrick Vieira is also excited at the prospect of a derby game.

The ex-Arsenal midfielder said: “It is the passion – the passion from both [sets of] fans. It is the rivalry between those two football clubs since years [ago], and of course, we all know – the staff, the players – about how important this game is.

“Again, the main focus will be on concentrating on the way we want to play the game, with the conviction and the belief in ourselves.

“We always had a good performance against them [last season], but we drew – we didn’t manage to win those games – so it will be a different game of course, because of their new manager, but we know what to expect from them.

“We have quality, we have confidence, we have belief, and it will be important for us to perform tomorrow.”

Crystal Palace face Brighton at Selhurst Park tomorrow – 3pm kick off.