In May, when the dust has settled on the 26th season of the Premier League, the chances are that one or two of the clubs involved in Albion's first and last away fixtures of December will be preparing for life back in the Championship.

The Seagulls, together with Saturday's hosts Huddersfield and Newcastle United - their final opponents of 2017 - have adapted pretty well so far to the top flight.

Albion are 12th, Newcastle 15th, Huddersfield 16th on goal difference, with seven and five-point buffers between them and the relegation zone.

History, in line with the current underlying trend, suggests the encouraging state of affairs for the newcomers has a short shelf life.

First the good news for Chris Hughton, Rafa Benitez (below) and Dave Wagner. There is next to no chance of them all meeting up again in the second tier next season.

The Argus: You have to trawl all the way back to the 1997-98 season for the one and only occasion when all three clubs promoted to the Premier League went straight back down.

Now the bad news. In 23 of the 25 Premier League years, at least one of the promoted teams has succumbed to the drop.

The first exception was the survival of Fulham, Bolton and Blackburn in 2001-02, when Albion were promoted to the Championship at Withdean as title winners for a second season in succession.

The second was in 2011-12, when Queens Park Rangers, Norwich and Swansea stayed up in the Seagulls' debut campaign at the Amex.

Hughton, Benitez and Wagner will all be mindful that, as well as their teams have coped up to now, the overwhelming evidence is it gets progressively harder.

There have already been highlights for each of them, back-to-back away wins and a five-match unbeaten run for Albion.

Huddersfield's first victory over Manchester United for 65 years, a point for Newcastle against Liverpool. Momentum, however, is beginning to work against them.

The table based on the last six matches is a warning. Newcastle are bottom of it with one point, Huddersfield 17th with three points.

Albion, courtesy of the victory at Swansea and a hat-trick of home draws, are 13th with six points.

The history of the Premier League is also littered with uncomfortable examples of promoted clubs beginning promisingly, only to fall by the wayside.

In the first ever season, Middlesbrough were seventh after ten games with 15 points.

They endured a horrible run, losing 12 of their 15 matches either side of Christmas, and were eventually relegated.

In 2008-09, Hull, promoted via the play-offs like Huddersfield, caused one shock after another before Christmas.

They won at Arsenal and Spurs back-to-back, accumulated 23 points from the opening 15 games - six more than Albion.

The Argus: After Boxing Day, when they were thrashed at Manchester City and manager Phil Brown (above) infamously conducted his half-time team talk on the pitch, they won only one more game to survive by a point.

More recently than that, in 2010-11, Blackpool were eighth in the table with 25 points from 17 matches.

They went to pieces in the new year, losing eight games in January and February, and finished next-to-bottom, a point from safety.

If Albion, Huddersfield and Newcastle are not all going down, who else will?

Seagulls supporters will be disappointed to discover arch rivals Crystal Palace can derive comfort from their own experience in 2013-14.

After going up via the play-offs, including beating Albion, they lost nine of their first ten matches and picked up just three points.

Tony Pulis replaced Neil Warnock and guided them to safety, so appointing Roy Hodgson may turn out to be a shrewd move.

The season before, Southampton had four points from ten games, axed Nigel Adkins, appointed Mauricio Pochettino and ended up 14th.

Swansea are the only club in the bottom four yet to make a managerial change, so perhaps they have most to fear.