Graham Potter believes Brighton have to keep improving after admitting the club have been in a relegation battle for months.
The Seagulls travel to the Hawthorns to take on 19th-placed West Brom on Saturday looking to bounce back from their last-gasp 2-1 defeat to rivals Crystal Palace on Monday.
“We are where we are in the table, we know the situation,” the Brighton boss said when asked if the club would be drawn into a relegation scrap with defeat.
“We’ve got 13 matches to play which gives us 39 points to play for… there’s a lot to play, we’ve been in a relegation battle for months, that’s the narrative of the Premier League when you’re there in the table, that’s what you can’t get away from.
“I have to answer questions about it every week, so nothing changes from our perspective. We know the situation we’re in, we know we haven’t got the points we need, we need more and that’s what we’re going to try and get.”
Potter’s side have beaten Tottenham and champions Liverpool in recent weeks but Monday’s loss – in which Brighton had 25 attempts at goal compared to Palace’s three – left them just four points above the relegation zone.
“We have to try and carry on with the performance level and keep improving. The end game is to try and get the points to stay in the Premier League, it doesn’t matter where you have got those points from,” Potter said.
“We feel we’re capable of getting points against pretty much everybody in the league, that’s where our belief is.
“But every game is different and West Brom is different to when we face Leicester, which will be different to Crystal Palace.
“Everybody is fighting, the reality is three teams will go down and they won’t be three bad teams because that’s the competition.”
