Brighton's De Zerbi eyes 'dream' win over rivals Crystal Palace

One of the odder derbies in English football takes place on Thursday, although for many years London club Palace have been the closest team to Brighton at some 40 miles north of the south coast side.

The sides only started to become fierce rivals in the mid-1970s when they climbed from the old Third Division to the First Division under two young managers in former Tottenham team-mates Alan Mullery (Brighton) and Terry Venables (Palace), both ex-England internationals.

They now meet in the Premier League, with ninth-placed Brighton the favourites to beat a Palace side without a victory in their last six matches.

"We have a big motivation to win the game, for the league table, but especially for our fans," De Zerbi told reporters.

"We know the importance of the game, and the level of difficulty of the game.

"It is an honour for the players to play in this type of game, and in this type of atmosphere.

"It is a motivation and a dream to win away, especially in a derby game, and it is a big motivation not to sleep tonight."

The Seagulls, bidding for back-to-back wins against Palace, will be without defender Joel Veltman after the Dutch right-back suffered a knee injury in a 2-0 defeat at Arsenal last weekend.

"He (Veltman) has an injury not so big but I think for a couple of months we lost him," added Italian boss De Zerbi.