Graham Potter wants Albion to have belief against Prem's elite

The Seagulls were beaten 4-1 at home in May by Manchester City, who were crowned champions in Chris Hughton's last match in charge.

Hughton's Albion defeated Manchester United at the Amex twice and picked up their first point in 12 attempts away to the top six clubs at Arsenal at the end of the season.

They have taken 12 points out of a possible 72 overall encountering the giants, fixtures which Potter acknowledges will be severe tests again in his first season in charge.

The head coach told The Argus: "They are probably some of the best teams in Europe and it would be foolish for me to say anything else.

"But I want us to have an attitude that it's a football game, that you can lose any game. You can draw a Conference or League Two team in the Cup and lose, that's the beauty of football, but at the same time you can also win.

"We have to have that belief, that courage. Just having that idea and those words doesn't mean you are going to do anything – you have to have an idea and a plan, luck, all that sort of stuff, but we want to try to go into every game with that humility I suppose, try and win but at the same time know that we can not."

Potter's Swansea gave City a fright in the FA Cup quarter-finals last season before Pep Guardiola's side beat Albion 1-0 in the semi-finals at Wembley.

City are the first top six opponents for Potter this season, at the Etihad at the end of August.

Albion host West Ham and Southampton prior to that, following a trip to Watford to launch Potter's reign.

Potter and his backroom team took note of the order when the fixtures were released last month.

"Of course we looked," he said. "I was excited by that.

"Nothing's easy and you have to understand in the Premier League you can lose any game. But at the same time we need to try and get a mentality and belief that if we do things well and play to our best and do all the things necessary, then there is a possibility to win as well."