Match Review: Manchester City 4-0 Brighton

Pep Guardiola likes Graham Potter’s Brighton. That’s the one thing that we can take away from the Albion’s 4-0 defeat against the champions of England at the Etihad Stadium.

The Manchester City boss said after his side’s easy victory, “Few teams come here and play with that courage. This courage led to the chances they had, but the difference today was that my players up front are incredibly good.”

“When two teams want to play and show courage, the football is fantastic. This team created more chances to score a goal than the teams that defend deep. They played to hurt us and score goals.”

Which is nice to hear. But ultimately, praise from one of the greatest managers in the history of football doesn’t get you any points. The Premier League aren’t going to sit down and think, “Bloody hell, Pep thought Brighton were good. Let’s give them a bonus point.”

Not that anybody sane would have been expecting anything from City away anyway. For the Albion to win, they’d have had to give a faultless display and the hosts would have had to be well below their best. Unfortunately, neither of those things happened.

City were ruthless in front of goal and any hopes that Brighton had of some sort of shock result were pretty much out the window inside of 71 seconds.

That’s how long it took Adam Webster to lose possession to Riyad Mahrez 30 yards out from goal. Five passes and one missed Davy Propper tackle later and David Silva was squaring for Kevin De Bruyne to score.

Any game plan Graham Potter had was suddenly gone. And it did appear that he had one, given that Shane Duffy has been dropped for the first time in his Albion career for Webster, Bernardo made his first start of the season at left wing back and Solly March was played in a much more central role with the formation almost becoming 3-4-2-1.

You could see the thinking. Webster offered more pace against City’s lightning quick attack while dropping March and Leandro Trossard deeper from Neal Maupay allowed the Albion to pack the midfield in the same manner that most teams going to City have to do to try and stop them playing.

Going 1-0 down before some supporters had even finished their £3.50 pint of Strongbow Dark Fruits on the concourse (Paul Barber please take note of drink selection and price) could have led to the Albion crumbling, but credit is due for the way in which we responded.

The Albion tried to find a way back into the game and there were even times when we dominated possession between City’s first and second goals. Not many teams go to the Etihad Stadium and do that.

There were some pleasing passing moves in the final third and the intent not to sit back and defend was best summed up when Webster embarked on a driving run out of defence which would have put him in on goal were it not for a tactical foul from Aymeric Laporte.

That proved to be costly for Laporte as not only was he booked, but he was also stretchered off with what looked like a pretty serious injury. On came Fernandinho, playing out of position at centre half.

Could the Albion try and take advantage? Not before City made it two. It was a brilliant passing move as the hosts cut through a mass of black shirts as easily as a knife through butter.

Kyle Walker, Mahrez and De Bruyne all combined to tee up Sergio Aguero in the box, who took Webster out the game with one touch and left Lewis Dunk and Dan Burn on the ground before firing into the top corner past Maty Ryan.

The Albion’s best chance of the game followed that. City made a bit of a hash out of a corner, which allowed Propper to drive forward with purpose.

He found Bernardo who crossed to the far post where Trossard was lurking. The Belgian only had Ederson to beat but the City goalkeeper pulled off a brilliant save, spreading himself to block Trossard’s effort.

Would it have been a different game if that went in? Conceding a goal right on the stroke of half time when defending a 2-0 lead can often change the complexion going into the second half, but in truth it probably wouldn’t have made much difference.

Early in the second half and another good chance fell to Trossard. Martin Montoya was pressing high up the pitch and that was rewarded when he won possession and found Maupay. He fed Trossard who could only scuff a shot straight into the head of Fernandinho when front and centre of the goal.

That’s what Guardiola was talking about when he said the difference between the two sides was the quality of front players. If those two opportunities fall to an Aguero, a De Bruyne or a David Silva, then nine times out of 10 they go in – and that’s why, if City continue their current scoring rate in the Premier League, they’re going to hit 133 goals this season.

Brighton will never have strikers that good. But even so, the amount of chances we’re failing to take is a growing concern. Those two Trossard opportunities wouldn’t have made much difference to the scoreline at the Etihad, but our failure to convert numerous opportunities in the two previous games against West Ham United and Southampton means we’ve picked up just one point from two extremely winnable home games.

With the likes of Burnley at home and Newcastle United away to come after the international break, that needs to change. If we don’t win at least one of those games, suddenly we could be in the bottom three and the pressure could be building on Potter, especially given how many pundits and other clubs want us to fail because of the manner in which Chris Hughton was replaced.

Those two misses were punished as Aguero curled a stunning strike into the top corner from the edge of the box with just under an hour gone.

City’s fourth came from substitute Bernardo Silva. He’d only been on the pitch a matter of seconds when his first touch saw him control an Aguero pass and his second saw him beat Ryan with a low and hard finish into the bottom corner.

That substitution again highlighted the difference between the two sides. While Guardiola can throw on a £45m midfielder who has won the European Championships and the Nations League with Portugal in the past three years, Potter was turning to 19-year-old Aaron Connolly to make his debut from the bench.

In turn, Connolly became the first academy product to be handed a league debut since Rob Hunt replaced the injured Bruno late in the second half away at Burton Albion three seasons ago.

His 24 minutes on the pitch represented more game time than Hughton gave any youth team products during his four-and-a-half years in charge.

Potter’s trust of young players was one of the reasons he was appointed and many fans will be cheering the inclusion of Connolly, especially after a goal on his full debut in the midweek Carabao Cup win at Bristol Rovers.

He certainly seems like a better option than the lazy Jurgen Locadia and the liability Florin Andone, one of whom has left the club with the other looking likely to follow by the end of Monday.

Another reason Potter came in was because of his attacking principles and his desire to play attractive football. There was plenty of that in evidence at the Etihad, as shown by the fact that even Guardiola was impressed.

Four points from four games is probably about where we expected to be at this stage of the season, so it’s been a decent start to the Potter era.

But it needs to get better. The football has been good, but we need to score more goals. Starting against Burnley in two weeks time.

Nobody expected us to get anything from City, but to fail to win home any of our first three home games when the opponents have been West Ham, Southampton and Burnley would be a real cause for concern – no matter what Guardiola thinks about the way we play football.