By Tim Hodges
The Albion will play Arsenal in the 4th Round of the FA Cup at the Amex Stadium on Saturday 26 January.
It will be the first time that the clubs have met in 25 years.
The Seagulls are expecting their biggest Amex attendance yet for the game which has a traditional 3pm kick off.
Arsenal fans are expected to take up their full allocation of 4,000 tickets.
The clubs have met in the FA Cup three times. The first clash was in the 3rd round in January 1935 when the Gunners won 2-0 at the Goldstone.
The sides met again in January 1980, this time in the 4th round at Highbury. The result was also a 2-0 win for Arsenal.
The Seagulls lost another 4th round tie to Arsenal in 1988 when they went down 2-1 at the Goldstone. It was the last time the clubs played a competitive match against each other.
They have met 13 times in total, with Albion winning only twice, both times at home in 1982 in the top flight of the league.
Albion have twice held Arsenal, once in a League Cup tie in 1979 before being demolished 4-0 in the replay.
The first fixture in living memory for many fans took place on the opening day of the 1979-80 season.
It was Brighton’s debut in Division One – now the Premiership – with Liam Brady opening the scoring for the visitors at the Goldstone as the Gunners cruised to a 4-0 win.
Brady, who later played and managed Brighton, also scored the opener when Arsenal won 3-0 at Highbury three months later.
Albion boss Gus Poyet said that he would praying for Arsenal to play badly and Albion to play well.
Those old regulars on the Argus site will be going on about how we can beat the Gunners. Then someone will disagree with they’ll combine forces against him/her. Don’t bother posting unless you have a thick skin.