Albion are much less of a one-man team than at least two of their rivals in the bottom half of the Premier League table.

Remove wingers Wilfried Zaha from Crystal Palace or Xherdan Shaqiri from Stoke and their chances plummet.

The Seagulls are more capable of coping without Dale Stephens. The success of Chris Hughton's side is based around a team ethic, rather than an exceptional individual, and yet there is no disguising the influence of the central midfield cog.

The difference in Albion's results with and without Stephens in the Championship and now in the Premier League is telling.

His absence was felt in the 2-0 defeat at Everton which maintained a pattern.

Albion have won just eight (16 per cent) and lost 24 (50 per cent) of the 48 league matches missed by Stephens since he joined the club from Charlton in January 2014.

The 145 games Stephens has featured in yielded 71 victories (49 per cent) and 42 defeats (29 per cent).

Combining wins and draws suggests Albion's chances of a point or three against Leicester today would improve by 21 per cent with Stephens back in the side.

That is unlikely to be the case due to a hamstring injury sustained in training in the run-up to the Everton game, which has ruined his ever-present record.

Hughton could drop Pascal Gross back into a three-man midfield with Davy Propper and Beram Kayal, as was the case at Manchester United in the FA Cup.

He is more likely to stick with the tried and trusted 4-4-1-1, two from Jose Izquierdo, Solly March and Jurgen Locadia occupying the side spots, before welcoming Stephens back at home to Huddersfield next Saturday.