Adam Lallana has vowed to do former club Liverpool a favour in the Premier League title race.
The midfielder spent six years at Anfield before departing for Brighton & Hove Albion in July 2020, who face reigning champions and league leaders Manchester City on Wednesday. With Liverpool hosting old foes Manchester United 24 hours earlier and aiming to go top of the table, Lallana and co will bid to keep City in second place by taking points off Pep Guardiola 's side.
Ahead of Brighton's trip to the Etihad Stadium, the 33-year-old told the Sussex Express : "It's wide open [the title race]. It's a great year in the Premier League. There's tough teams week in week out. We are one of them [and have caused] upsets this year against big teams. Hopefully we can get one more on Wednesday night against City for my old team."
With Guardiola and co only leading Liverpool by one point, even a draw for Brighton would send shockwaves across the Premier League. The Seagulls head to Manchester off the back of two excellent results away from home in north London, beating Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur on back-to-back weekends to shake up the race for Champions League football and further assure their own survival for a fifth season in the top flight.
Despite those shock results, boss Graham Potter reckons his team will need to go up another level in order to upset title-chasing City. "I would say we'll have to be even better than we were against Spurs. That's the challenge," Potter affirmed following their dramatic 1-0 win at Spurs on Saturday.
"It's very rare you get the opportunity to play against the very best in sport, so while it's an incredible challenge it's also exciting. We'll go there and do our best." Brighton head into Wednesday's clash much fresher than City, who have played both Atletico Madrid and Liverpool twice each over the past fortnight in a gruelling run of games.
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With fatigue potentially playing its part, the Seagulls manager still dismissed the timing of the match and its toll on City, who hammered his side 4-1 in October. "They had a tough two games against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League," Potter went on to explain.
"You can't imagine how tough that is, in between two Liverpool matches. To recover from 3-0 down at half-time [in Saturday's FA Cup semi-final loss] and play the second half as they did, the way they acted was very, very impressive. In the game at the weekend you saw their qualities. You admire them just as much in defeat as when they are winning games."
