Brighton v Manchester City: History & head-to-head of Seagulls v Citizens

Given that Brighton have only met Manchester City 26 times in their history, the fixture has thrown up a surprising amount of entertainment throughout its limited existence.

It has resulted in two managers leaving their jobs. Bond, John Bond of Manchester City was the first to go after the Blues were knocked out of the fourth round of the FA Cup 4-0 at the Goldstone Ground in January 1983.

The Manchester City hierarchy were seemingly not impressed by being eliminated from the competition by a struggling top flight side, but perhaps they were a little harsh in their dismissal of Bond – Brighton went onto reach the final that season for the only time in the club’s history.

The second manager to be sacked in the aftermath of a Brighton versus Manchester City fixture was of course Chris Hughton. Pep Guardiola’s side won 4-1 at the Amex that May 2019 day to become the first team in over a decade to retain the Premier League title.

Hughton’s fate had been sealed much earlier than the defeat which gave City their title. An atrocious run of form in which the Albion won just twice in 18 games as they scraped to Premier League survival ultimately cost Hughton his job, rather than the result against City.

It was not just Hughton who said farewell that day. Brighton waved goodbye to Bruno with an emotional send off and Vicent Kompany played his final match for Manchester City as two of the most successful captains in their respective club’s history retired via standing ovations from the entire Amex as they were substituted off.

The goodbyes in Brighton versus City games are not just restricted to retiring players and sacked managers. Remarkably, the fixture has also resulted in the sacking of a ‘ball boy’ in what remains one of our favourite Albion stories ever.

Keith Cuss was Brighton’s chief ball boy at the age of 41 and something of a cult hero at the Goldstone. When City visited Hove on Saturday 1st April 1989, Brighton led 2-1 with not long remaining.

The Albion were desperately holding on for three vital points in their battle to avoid relegation from the second tier when a loose City pass flew towards Keith at head height.

In a brilliant time wasting tactic, Keith decided to deliberately head the ball up and into the crowd to prevent City taking a quick throw to cheers from around the ground.

The Citizens were hunting for promotion at the time and they certainly didn’t see the funny side, expressing their disgust to the Albion and the media.

Sadly, Brighton caved into the demand of the City board rather than showing any sort of backbone in standing up for their own loyal supporter and sacked Keith as a result.

It was a sad way for a popular figure to end a long association with the club, even if the idea of a 41-year-old ball boy seems particularly weird.

The only meeting between Brighton and Manchester City in the League Cup to date was probably the most memorable from an Albion point of view against their illustrious opponents.

City arrived at Withdean Stadium newly minted as the world’s richest club with all their Abu Dhabi petrodollars fresh in the bank. Four days earlier, they had hammered Portsmouth 6-0 at the City of Manchester Stadium in the Premier League.

They were facing Micky Adams’ Albion side, who had shown slightly contrasting form at the weekend by losing 1-0 at home to a Walsall side who played for over an hour with nine men.

The Walsall horror show was (nearly) forgotten though. After an enthralling 120 minutes ended in a 2-2 draw, Brighton beat Manchester City 5-3 on penalties to pull off the shock of the season and one of the biggest in the history of the competition.

Nine years after that memorable Withdean evening, the sides met as equals at the Amex Stadium in Brighton’s first game back in the top flight of English football for 34 seasons.

There was some nice symmetry to that – Brighton’s final game of their first spell in the old Division One came against City, a 1-0 defeat in May 1983 that confirmed the Albion’s relegation as the side rock bottom of the table.

Brighton’s return to the top table saw Pep Guardiola mark the occasion by wearing his cream trousers and bringing his star studded, billion pound team to Falmer in August 2017. The result was a similar one though, City winning 2-0.

That was the first game in what turned out to be a record breaking season for the Citizens. By the time Hughton took his side to the Etihad Stadium for the penultimate game of the campaign nine months later, Guardiola’s side had the Premier League title wrapped up.

They added a host of records to their collection by winning 3-1 that night, breaking the top flight record of 95 points, surpassing the record number of goals in a season of 104 and winning more games than anybody else in a Premier League season.

After those title wins in 2017-18 and 2018-19, City surrendered their championship to Liverpool in 2019-20. The Premier League trophy was not away from the Etihad Stadium for too long, Guardiola and the Citizens finishing top of the pile again in the 2020-21.

They had already been crowned champions when they rocked up to the Amex for the penultimate game of the season. It looked like a long evening would be in store for Brighton – being watched by a crowd of 7,945 as coronavirus restrictions began to be lifted – when City went 1-0 ahead inside of two minutes.

A ninth minute red card for Joao Cancelo slowed City down a little but not enough to prevent them doubling their lead through a brilliant individual goal from Phil Foden early in the second half.

What happened over the remaining 40 minutes was quite unbelievable. Not only did Brighton launch a stunning comeback, but they were completely dominant over Manchester City – arguably the best Premier League side of all time managed by one of the greatest managers in the history of the game.

Goals from Leandro Trossard, Adam Webster and Dan Burn turned things around and the Albion came away with a famous win. Not only that, but it sparked a sensational meltdown from Guardiola, who refused to shake Graham Potter’s hand at full time.

Guardiola stormed down the tunnel having seen his side record only 37 percent possession – the lowest of his time at City. A great manager but a terrible loser.

Finally, lets finish with Brighton v Manchester City in the FA Cup. Nobody who was at Wembley for the semi final between the two clubs could forget the day in April 2019 when the Albion gave an excellent account of themselves in only losing 1-0 to opponents who were on their way to a domestic treble.

Gabriel Jesus scored the only goal after a piece of Kevin De Bruyne magic early on. Things might have been different had Brighton not missed a couple of gilt-edged chances in the second half and if Kyle Walker had not been shown a mere yellow card for headbutting Alireza Jahanbakhsh before half time.

95 years earlier and the FA Cup was the competition in which Brighton and Manchester City had met for the first time. The Albion developed something of a reputation as giant killers throughout the 1920s and the 1923-24 season saw Charlie Webb’s side eliminate second tier Barnsley and top flight Everton on their way to the third round of the competition.

The draw sent City to the Goldstone and Brighton fancied their chances having already overcome an Everton side packed with internationals.

Just like at Wembley in 2019, fate was again against the Albion in 1924 and from the moment that Jimmy Hopkins had a perfectly good goal disallowed inside of three minutes, nothing went right. City ended up running out 5-1 winners with Wally Little the Brighton scorer.

Those two FA Cup defeats for Brighton feed into an overall record which reads 16 losses, five draws and just five wins from 25 matches against City.

You would expect City to continue to improve those numbers with such a gulf in financial backing between the sides – but as Tuesday 18th May 2021 proves, anything is possible in football.