Relegation favourites tag has, and will continue to galvanise Albion

Tottenham striker Harry Kane fires in a shot at Wembley last night. Picture by Phil Westlake (PW Sporting Photography)

Being written off as relegation favourites has and will continue to galvanise Brighton & Hove Albion, according to Chris Hughton.

The Seagulls were one of the promoted sides highly tipped for an immediate return to the Championship after securing an automatic promotion place last season.

Their start in the Premier League surprised many and they were up to the dizzy heights of eighth after their 11th game – a 1-0 win at Swansea.

Since then, as expected they would in spells in the top flight, Albion have faced a slump and Tuesday night’s 2-0 defeat against Spurs left them without a win in six league matches.

Despite that, they remain 13th in the table, but are now only three points clear of the bottom three.

Hughton says relegation talk is something that they have used to their advantage, and commented: “It’s normal that we would be, at the start of the season, the bookies’ favourites to go back down again.

“What you have to do is use that in your favour in the changing room to motivate players.

“Overall, I have been pleased. If I take these last three games out of it and look at all our games and some of the results and performances then overall I have been pleased.

“At the start of season if you had told me we would have been here at this stage with the results we have got, then I would have been delighted with it.

“But it’s the next bits for us now. By our qualities and standards this season, we are going through a bad period of results. Fortunately for us, so are some other clubs. We now have to show that quality to keep the distance between ourselves and the bottom three.”

And while there were some shock starts to the season for many, Hughton believes the sides plenty was expected of are starting to improving.

Under Sam Allardyce, Everton are racing up the table, and while they still remain in the bottom three, both West Ham and Crystal Palace look to have turned a corner.

Hughton said: “Normally when you look at a league table and particular teams that are in a position you don’t expect them to be, what tends to happen over a period of a season is they work their way out of it.