When Albion were striving for promotion, they were driven by the concept of being Premier League ready.

The manager who took them there has now delivered on making them Premier League steady.

The curtain comes down on the Seagulls' second season back in the top flight with a showstopper at the Amex on Sunday.

A win for Manchester City will guarantee them retaining the title. Any other outcome and the destination of the trophy will also hinge on what happens at Anfield where Liverpool, a point adrift, host Wolves after their comeback in the semi-finals of the Champions League against Barcelona.

A couple of weeks before Tottenham's similarly extraordinary recovery in the other Champions League semi-final against Ajax, they were hurting one of their own as Christian Eriksen's late strike denied Chris Hughton's Albion a point in their fight against relegation with a late winner.

Since then, a home draw with Newcastle and Crystal Palace's victory at Cardiff have ensured it is second season mission accomplished by Hughton.

Most of the second half of it has been painful, just two wins and three points from the last 24, one of them at Arsenal last weekend.

The sequence includes a 5-0 home drubbing by Bournemouth and a six-game goal drought.

Even so, Albion actually secured safety a couple of hours sooner than last season - when the mood was far more euphoric - and have scored the same number of goals (34) with a game to go. Amongst it all there has been a constantly calm influence.

The Argus: Chief executive Paul Barber (centre right above) said: "Chris has done a fantastic job over four-and-a-half years. Any Premier League manager who goes through a period of losing games without scoring is going to be criticised.

"The pressure will build naturally. It comes from fans, media, pundits, but it also comes from the manager himself. Chris sets and demands and maintains very high standards, not just for his players but also for himself.

"All we've ever said is we will support Chris in every way we can in every transfer window and match to match. That hasn't changed during this period.

"Chris and I have this little routine where I don't call him after every game but I message him, make sure he is okay, win or lose.

"Is there anything he needs, the team needs, anything we can do to help.

"Even down to the level of detail of do we want to do anything different for home games. Flags, extra loud music, the dressing room decorated differently.

"Chris has been steadfastly consistent throughout the season. He wants things to be the same, the team to prepare the same way in the warm-up, the music to be at the same volume.

"He doesn't want us to introduce flags or clackers, all those sorts of things that we could do if we felt it was going to make a fraction of a difference.

"The most important thing he has said all the time throughout his four and a half years here is get as many people as you can into the stadium and please ask them to get behind the team, win or lose.

"That is Chris. You've seen him when he celebrates a goal. He's pretty restrained most of the time and he is like that in the preparation to games.

"Away from home I always make sure I'm in the team hotel the night before a game just to be there in case he needs anything or the team need anything and we can take that pressure away.

"Ninety-nine per cent of the time nothing and every so often there might be a noisy party downstairs and we have to say to the hotel any chance you can get the volume turned down, the players are resting.

"Chris maintains a very strict and calm regime. Even in this more difficult spell and particularly the second half of the season he's been the same.

"That's not to say he doesn't rabble rouse in the dressing room but that's his business, not our business.

"Likewise he might have a call to me that's longer than normal if we've had a difficult weekend but likewise it's with the same tone of voice, the same sort of calm authority. All we can do in these situations is support."

Hughton has lost the support of impatient and over-demanding minority pockets of the fanbase. Only the sixth season in the top flight in the club's history - and only the second blip in the last nine - has not been that bad.

They have beaten Manchester United again, been more competitive generally against the top six and reached an FA Cup semi-final for the first time since 1983.

The Argus: They have also taken six points from Palace, four off Wolves, West Ham and Newcastle.

Two of the club's three key objectives in August, survival and a Cup run, have been achieved.

They will fall slightly short of the third aim, matching or improving on last season's finish of 15th with 40 points.

It hasn't been pretty in the past few weeks but Hughton has kept his composure.

Barber said: "People's characters are people's characters and, under pressure, you want them to be themselves and true to themselves. That is less worrying for the players than if they are suddenly confronted with the manager behaving completely out of character.

"I'm not sure that necessarily helps or motivates in a way people might think. Likewise, I think if things are going well, you don't want that manager to get carried away and believe anything is possible beyond what we know is possible.

"I actually think consistency is better than not but, of course, we know at the end of the day we are in the entertainment business, we are aware of that, so is Chris and so are the players.

"Sometimes though in the Premier League you have to be pragmatic, to put in the kind of performance we put in at Wolves (0-0) and for 88 minutes at Tottenham.

"It's hard and it's not particularly exciting if you are a Brighton fan but the support in both those games was fantastic and the reception the players got was magnificent.

"I think the 3,000 fans at each game really appreciated we were up against high quality sides, particularly against Tottenham, and the players performed at a very high level to stay in the game for as long as they did.

"We were beaten by a brilliant goal by a world class player, that's the Premier League. That wouldn't happen in the Championship."