Currently 13th in the Premier League, Hughton will be looking at securing the Seagulls stature and making them established in England's top flight. In order to do this games like tomorrow will not be ones pinpointed as ones where that future is made or broken.
That's not to say they will not put out a decent lineup and make it tough for us. They did last season, and they will again.
Head to head certainly City should feel confident. In the nineteen competitive games the two have faced off, City have won ten, including both from last season.
It was only four months ago Manchester City hosted Brighton at the Etihad and defeated them. We'd already secured the title at that point, but was still on course for the 100 point mark. Goals from Danilo, Bernardo Silva and Fernandinho on the day secured the victory, but we couldn't keep a clean sheet.
You have to go back a decade for the last time City lost to Brighton, although that was in the League Cup. Technically it was a tied game, with Manchester City being eliminated on penalty kicks, but it still gets marked as a defeat. Gelson Fernandes and Stephen Ireland scored goals for the Blues that night, before losing 5-3 on spot kicks.
For the last League defeat, you have to go all the way back to a Mel Machin led Blues side. Defeated 2-1 away to Brighton, a single Trevor Morley strike the City contribution. That game, from the 1988/89 season, took place in the second tier of English football. Manchester City would go on to get promotion, along with Chelsea, while Brighton were left hovering at the wrong end of the table.
Manchester City have a number of players on their books who have also played on the Brighton coast at various points of their careers. Joe Corrigan and Division Two play-off hero, Paul Dickov are just two of the names.
Danny Mills, Wayne Bridge, Ian Mellor and Justin Fashenu have all also played in both blues with youngsters Gai Assulin and Abdul Razack all loaned to the Albion from Manchester in 2012 before moving on.
When it comes to Managers we have shared I guess you could include Steve Coppell, who managed Brighton with only slightly more success than City. Falling asleep through his interview and slumped to a 5-0 defeat to his previous club Crystal Palace before bailing on them for Reading.
It was a similar, but much shorter story when he came to Maine Road. Leaving Palace, for the second of four spells with them, he took over at City. The managerial genius lasted only 33 days and six games in charge before leaving due to the pressure.
A much better example of a manager for both sides has to be Brian Horton, who also played over 200 times for Brighton. A Manager for City from 1993-95 he was in charge of a Blues side the wrong end of the newly formed Premiership table.
Replacing Peter Reid he will be remembered as the man who traded David White for David Rocastle. With the former being a club legend, and the latter failing to live up to his Arsenal form, it wasn't the greatest decision in the club's history.
However, he was the guy responsible for signing Peter Beagrie, Paul Walsh and Uwe Rosler! Unfortunately a change of Chairman meant the incoming Francis Lee,a City legend in his own right, wanted his own man in charge. Therefore Alan Ball was installed and Horton was out.
A spell at Huddersfield was less than impressive before he found himself back at Brighton, then in the Third Division. Saving them from relegation he left them improved in 1999.
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