'He's a star' - Micah Richards, Leandro Trossard, Joel Veltman and Hope Powell address four key talking points for Brighton

Trossard who scored from the spot in Albion's 1-1 draw against Newcastle last Saturday, said: "If you had said at the start of the season that we would have had 17 points at this moment everyone would sign up for that.

"It is a good feeling as well, maybe not from today but in general the environment is good and everybody believes that we can achieve something this season.

"We need to keep working and believing and maybe we can achieve something nice."

Veltman on Snachez

Joel Veltman said the suspension of Rob Sanchez for their next game against Aston Villa is a blow for Albion.

Sanchez was dismissed in the dying minutes of the 1-1 draw against Newcastle last Saturday when he tripped Magpies forward Callum Wilson.

"Of course and he was disappointed as well," said the Dutch international defender.

"He did what he could. We have to see the replay and see if we could do better before the red card. We have to learn from that but he was disappointed, everybody was disappointed about that."

Hope Powell on Whelan

Hope Powell was thrilled for her players after Aileen Whelan’s goal gave them a 1-0 win at Everton and moved them up to third in the Barclays WSL table.

Powell said, “In the first half we sat a bit too deep but we pushed our midfielders up in the second half and got on the front foot.

“I think Aileen benefitted from that. She was able to get in the box more and we saw that with the goal.

“She was very brave and took it well and she also hit the post in the first half.”

Albion are back at the Amex next Sunday to take on Leicester City.

Micah Richards on Lamptey

Micah Richards suggested Brighton's Tariq Lamptey could one day be in contention for a spot in Gareth Southgate’s England squad.

The Albion defender recently made his comeback from a long term hamstring issue, and hopes to rekindle the form he exhibited over the early stages of last season.

"Lamptey at Brighton is another rising star — so England will have class options in my part of the pitch for many seasons to come. The investment in producing technical players is paying dividend," said Richards