Match Preview: Out-of-form Brighton face in-form Manchester City
A trip to Manchester City is tough at the best of times but as our match preview is about to explain, Brighton could hardly be heading to the Etihad Stadium at a worse moment.
The Albion are currently on the longest winless run in the Premier League. Graham Potter has overseen just two top flight wins all season. And a near-full strength side needed penalties to eliminate League Two Newport County from the FA Cup 72 hours ago.
City in contrast have won six in a row. After an unusually slow start to the season, they are gliding practically unnoticed into the title race thanks to Pep Guardiola discovering almost by accident a rock solid defensive combination after five seasons of spending the GDP of a large country on centre backs.
It is in-form Citizens against out-of-form Seagulls. It could be a very long evening for the Albion.
Manchester City this season
Most clubs are finding this to be a weird Premier League season thanks to the impact of Covid-19 on the campaign. Manchester City have been one of the hardest hit by the virus, seeing players ruled out through isolation and games postponed.
Combine that with an unusually high number of draws and the Citizens are in the strange position of having rarely troubled the top four so far. They currently sit sixth in the table, seven points behind rivals Manchester United but with two games in hand.
Guardiola ended months of speculation by signing a new long-term deal to remain at the Etihad in November and that seems to have settled City down somewhat.
Since their bald boss put pen to paper, City have dropped just five league points when losing against Tottenham Hotspur and drawing with United and West Bromwich Albion.
Recent form
Those of a weak disposition should look away now. City have won their past six matches in all competitions, conceding just twice along the way.
What is most impressive about their run of victories is that it has largely been achieved without a centre forward thanks to the absence of Sergio Aguero and Jesus.
Whilst a Brighton side featuring Lewis Dunk, Adam Webster, Ben White, Yves Bissouma, Solly March and Neal Maupay had to go through 120 minutes against League Two opponents on Sunday, City hammered Championship side Birmingham City 3-0 without breaking a sweat.
Guardiola’s billion pound squad will be well rested and bang in form to take on an Albion side who have not won a game since mid-November. Are we making it clear enough in our preview that Manchester City v Brighton looks like a complete mismatch?
Brighton v Manchester City head-to-head
Matches between Brighton and Manchester City have been few and far between over the past 120 years. The clubs first met in the third round of the FA Cup in the 1923-24 season with top flight City breezing past Division Three South Albion 5-1 at the Goldstone Ground.
It would be 1979 before Seagulls and Citizens clashed in a league game and the cupboard has been pretty bare from Brighton point of view ever since with just four wins from 24 matches. Five occasions have ended in draws with City being victorious 14 times.
You have to go back nine matches to April 1st 1989 to find the last Brighton win. Alan Curbishley and an own goal gave relegation threatened Albion a shock 2-1 home success in the second tier against promotion chasing City.
The result that day was only part of the fun – for this was also the famous afternoon when Brighton sacked their head ball boy, 41-year-old Keith Cuss, for timewasting.
Keith’s crime? Heading a wayward City pass up in the air and into the crowd in the final minutes rather than returning the ball to City so they could take a quick throw.
His actions earned Keith an almighty cheer and plenty of laughter from the Goldstone crowd. City did not see the funny side, expressing their disgust to the Albion and the media and demanding that Keith be hung, drawn and quartered.
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 disappointing 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.
Even more depressing than Keith’s demise is that Brighton have never won an away game against Manchester City – this is turning into a really positive match preview, isn’t it?
The Albion’s best results in 10 attempts are a couple of 1-1 draws from the 1980-81 season and the 1982-83 season in which Andy Ritchie and Tony Grealish respectively scored.
Brighton’s head-to-head record with Manchester City
Last six meetings
• Brighton 0-5 Manchester City (Premier League, 11/07/20)
• Manchester City 4-0 Brighton (Premier League, 31/08/19)
• Brighton 1-4 Manchester City (Premier League, 12/05/19)
• Brighton 0-1 Manchester City (FA Cup, 06/04/19)
• Manchester City 2-0 Brighton (Premier League, 29/09/18)
• Manchester City 3-1 Brighton (Premier League, 09/05/18)
A lot of Brighton supporters went all gooey-eyed over Guardiola’s comments from last season when he said he enjoys watching and playing against Potter’s Brighton. We would love playing opponents too if we beat them 4-0 and then 5-0.
Those were the two worst results which the Albion have recorded against City since winning promotion to the Premier League in 2017. Unsurprisingly, the Citizens have won all seven meetings – six in the league and that FA Cup semi final in 2019 – with Brighton scoring just twice.
Leonardo Ulloa’s consolation at the Etihad in May 2018 was the first of those, followed by Glenn Murray’s shock opener at the Amex the following season which looked like it might send the title to Liverpool… for all of 90 seconds.
Team news
This is the section of the Manchester City versus Brighton match preview where things look even more bleak. Potter is without Tariq Lamptey, Ben White and Danny Welbeck through injury and Yves Bissouma is suspended.
Personally, we would throw the game and stick out a reserve side. The weekend trip to The Leeds United is much more important. Name a weakened team at City and concentrate on picking up the three points we desperately need at Elland Road.
This is Potter though. He played his second-string at home to an out-of-form Arsenal in a fixture Brighton should have been targeting something from. He will probably name his best XI against City and then start Jason Steele on the right wing and Alireza Jahanbakhsh at centre back at Leeds.
Manchester City’s key players
Where do you start? De Bruyne has tormented Brighton every time we have come up against him in the past and behind the Belgian playmaker is a support cast that are worth every penny of Sheikh Mansour’s petrodollars.
The betting value for Manchester City v Brighton
The best price you can only get on City to win is 2/11. Spending £11 to make a £2 profit is hardly a good investment, so it is best to look elsewhere for value.
Your author was in Nizhny Novgorod when England beat Panama 6-0 at the World Cup and although much of the day is a haze because of 90p beers and too much strong Russian vodka, it is easy to recall the fun John Stones had as he scored twice from set pieces.
We all know that Brighton cannot defend corners or free kicks for love nor money, which makes Stones to score anytime at 11/2 an attractive proposition.
An interesting subplot
Thanks to Sheffield United’s victory over Newcastle United, Brighton are now on the longest winless run in the Premier League. How much longer it goes on for – especially with The Leeds United and Fulham to come – will be interesting. And bloody worrying.
A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of Manchester City away
The Etihad Stadium may be a graveyard for Brighton, but it is one of the only grounds in the country which sells Strongbow Dark Fruits on the concourse. That alone makes it a must-do away trip when supporters are allowed to attend.
A bad WeAreBrighton.com memory of Manchester City away
Of course, such fine alcohol on sale can lead to problems. For the Wednesday night match against City in 2018, five points of Dark Fruits were consumed in 15 minutes before the game and 15 minutes at half time.
Combine that intake with an afternoon session in Manchester and, well, Houston we had a problem. The National Express coach driver deemed the WAB team too pissed to board the 1.30am bus back to London and so it meant an evening sleeping in Manchester Coach Station before attempting to board the next bus home at 6am. All of that for a 3-1 defeat.
Manchester City’s most famous fan
Those Gallagher brothers are pretty well known and unlike a lot of City’s famous fans, had actually heard of the club before the great Abu Dhabi sports washing project got underway in 2008.
Prediction
It is hard to see anything other than a long and difficult evening being in store for Brighton. A repeat of last season’s 4-0 hammering.
