Patrick Vieira says his Crystal Palace side are an improved outfit compared to their 1-1 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion in September 2021, but admitted the “game and last-minute equaliser is still on our mind.”
The south Londoners led that clash at Selhurst from just before half-time until the 95th-minute, when Brighton nabbed a goal at the death.
Vieira said that will be amongst his thoughts when competing on the south coast on Friday night, but that his team have taken steps forward in the interim.
“We played on the front foot, tried to dominate the possession, even if we know it would be challenging because this is a team who like to have the ball as well.
“I think it was a game where both teams had their moment. We managed to score and we lost a little bit of our momentum and togetherness and they went through a really good period. When you play a team who play well in possession you expect to go through difficult periods. It’s important for us, like we did in the first game, to be brave when we have the ball, try to hurt them and try to play forward and score.
“This is the kind of game the players and fans find really exciting and we’re really looking forward to it. The last game we played at home and the last-minute equaliser is still in our mind. We will go with the same ideas of playing to give ourselves the best chance of getting a result.
“[We are more] mature, yes, because when we play games the players improve and I learn a lot about the players. We are in a better place yes but there is still a long way to go. We’re going to have a difficult game tomorrow because of the way they play. The project and where they are, we’re still behind. But tomorrow is going to be an exciting game for us and we’re really looking forward to it."
Brighton, whose current squad have largely played under manager Graham Potter since May 2019, sit ninth in the table with an impressive 27 points from 19 games. The Seagulls have never enjoyed a Premier League finish higher than Palace’s, having only joined the top-flight in recent seasons, but Vieira said he will not use any team as a yard stick in the table:
“There is no target to finish above any team. We know where we are and what we want to do is to challenge ourselves and finish as high as we can. We can’t think about finishing above this team or that team.
“We know we want to be competitive every week and going into the second phase of the Premier League it’s important for us to improve those details about the way we want to play. That will help us improve our record away from home.”