Brighton head coach Graham Potter has urged his players not to become preoccupied looking over their shoulders at the Premier League relegation zone.
Albion have a relatively comfortable 10-point cushion on the bottom three but their position has become far more precarious following a dismal run which has yielded a paltry top-flight point from seven matches.
Having halted a six-game losing streak with last weekend’s frustrating draw at home to rock bottom Norwich, the 13th-placed Seagulls now face a trio of tricky away trips to Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester City.
“From our perspective, we’ve got to try and look forward, at our own performance and try and get points,” said Potter, ahead of Saturday’s visit to Emirates Stadium.
“You can’t worry too much about what the others might do because that might mean you’re looking over your shoulder and not focusing on what we need to do, which is to focus on our performance.
“The Norwich game was a good performance from us and we need to build on that, to maintain it and carry it forward to the next game.”
Brighton will come up against familiar opposition in north London in the shape of Ben White.
The 24-year-old defender joined Arsenal from the Seagulls last summer for a reported £50million.
Potter has been impressed with the ongoing development of the England international under the guidance of Gunners boss Mikel Arteta.
“Well, he has certainly made progress, I would say, and congratulations to him and Mikel and the staff there because he’s taken a step,” said Potter.
“When we made the sale we thought that would happen because he’s a good age, a good person, a good player with good qualities.
“I think Arsenal deserve credit. They identified him, they paid the fee and then they recognised what it was that they wanted. And they’ve used it well.
“They got off to a shaky start in terms of a defeat in the first game of the season against Brentford but I think from then he’s grown and grown and you can see his quality and what he brings to the team.”
Despite recent struggles – including just one goal in seven outings – Brighton remain on track for their highest Premier League finish.
Securing a further eight points from eight remaining fixtures would also give the club their highest points tally since promotion from the Championship in 2017.
Potter wants the Seagulls to strive for more as they bid to banish any lingering relegation fears.
“I never like to assess a season with the games we’ve we got left,” he said.
“In the middle of a season, you always want to do better and do more, so that’s where we’re at and our focus is on Arsenal. It’s as simple as that.
“You analyse the season at the end and then you can give it proper detail and a proper answer.
“But, at the moment, I would say we’re not satisfied because we want to do better and we want to try and focus on getting more points. The way you do that is to focus on Arsenal.”
