Rafa Benitez has warned about what he sees as underhand tactics by Albion at set-pieces.

The Newcastle boss believes his side have been short-changed at the Amex twice in 2017.

He urged them to be on guard in a very public reminder about he feels are illegal blocking tactics by the Seagulls.

Albion have scored just twice from set-pieces in the current Premier League season.

Benitez said there was an infringement as Tomer Hemed got one of those goals, against his side, after Pascal Gross’s deep free-kick was headed into the goalmouth by Dale Stephens.

When the sides met at the Amex last term, Albion were awarded a debated penalty for holding in the goalmouth at a corner.

Speaking in his press conference ahead of today’s game, Benitez said: “We are close in the table.

“This is a really important game for us. Last year we were concerned about them blocking our centre-backs on corners and free-kicks.

“This season we lost the game because they fouled one of our players in our box on a free-kick.

“We have to learn that little details make a difference in games like this.”

Benitez, accused of overly defensive tactics against Manchester City in midweek, will have a different approach today.

He said: “We want to win and we think we can win, but Brighton will be thinking exactly the same.

“We’ll try to score goals and play at the level we did at West Ham.”

The fixture is the followed by league games against Stoke and Swansea, which will be seen as chances to pile up points.

Benitez said: “These are the games where people expect us to compete and to win, so my concern is to approach the games with the belief that we can win.”