Chris Hughton believes it is getting harder for clubs like Albion to upset the the Premier League elite.

The Seagulls have beaten Arsenal and Manchester at the Amex, the teams currently fifth and sixth in the table.

They have not managed so far to topple any of the top four, Liverpool, Manchester City, Spurs and Chelsea.

They get another crack today against table-topping Liverpool, with Hughton warning it is becoming increasingly difficult.

He told The Argus: “Sometimes you gauge how good the top are by how many of the bottom ten are going to get results against the top six teams.

“It seems harder as we’ve gone each season to get those results. Whether the top six are getting better or the rest are not the same level I don’t know, but certainly it seems to be getting harder.”

Hughton watched Liverpool, with nine changes and Dejan Lovren forced off injured early on, lose for the second match in succession at Wolves on Monday evening in the FA Cup after Manchester City ended their unbeaten league record.

Jurgen Klopp’s side have not lost three in a row for two years and Hughton is not reading much into their mini-blip.

He said: I saw them as two separate (Man City and Wolves). They were up against a Wolves team at home with not too many changes that are having a very good season.

“Even a side as good as Liverpool when you are disrupted that early in the game, when you are bringing on a 16-year-old centre-half, then it disrupts your game.

“If I’m looking at the defeats they’ve had, one of them is away at Man City and they are their hardest game of the season, and the other away in a Cup tie where they made numerous changes. So we’ll prepare for the game before Man City.”