Brighton 1-4 Man City: Maybe the Albion aren’t winning the title this year…

Sorry everyone, but it does not look like the Albion are going to win the Premier League title this season. The reigning champions came to the Amex and ruthlessly exploited Seagulls’ mistakes as it finished Brighton 1-4 Man City, highlighting the gap between the likes of City, Liverpool and Chelsea and the rest of the top flight.

We should not be surprised, of course. That gap exists because Pep Guardiola can go and spend £100 million on one player after spending the entire summer moaning that City had little money to spend.

The hearts of football fans everywhere really were bleeding for Pep until Sheikh Mansour found some spare change down the back of the sofa to break the British transfer record.

Jack Grealish cost more to sign than the Amex Stadium did to build. Whether any player is worth £100 million is up for debate and, concerningly for the rest of us paupers, fees are likely to be inflated even further now Saudi Arabia have joined the sportwashing party, giving Newcastle United wealth 10 times greater than even that of City.

During the first half of Brighton 1-4 Man City, we saw exactly what that sort of money can buy you. The visitors were scintillating, killing the game off with three goals inside of the opening 30 minutes.

Grealish, Gabriel Jesus and Bernardo Silva were unplayable – and they were not even the stars of the show. That mantle was reserved for Phil Foden, one of the few players City have not spent billions of petrodollars to sign.

Foden was a joy to watch as he scored twice and set one up in Brighton 1-4 Man City. The Albion were unable to cope with his vision, his skill or the way he glides so effortlessly across the pitch as part of an interchanging front three alongside Grealish and Jesus.

Judging by his starting XI, Graham Potter knew what was coming. Shane Duffy was dropped as Potter opted to move Joel Veltman into the back three with Solly March coming in on the right.

You could understand the logic behind the decision. Duffy is not as comfortable on the ball as Veltman and Potter therefore spared the Irishman being put under pressure by the aggressive press that Guardiola teams are famous for.

With hindsight though, the Albion could probably have done with their best defender so far this season on the pitch. Brighton were a mess defensively, both in terms of organisation and shape.

Dan Burn did not seem to know whether he was playing as a centre back, a left back, a left wing back or a centre forward. There was a five minute period when Pascal Gross was deeper than any centre back, as if he was a sweeper.

The fact that some fans thought Brighton were playing a 3-4-3, others a 4-4-2, others a 4-3-3 tells you everything. This confusion seeped into individual players, who began making mistakes the likes of which you might get away with to draw 0-0 against Norwich, but not when a rampant and determined City are in town.

A long evening looked in store as early as the 10th minute when City should have taken the lead. That they did not was because of an utterly outrageous overhead kick off the line from Lewis Dunk, hooking out a Jesus effort which was millimetres away from crossing into the goal.

How often have you ever seen a stadium rise to give a standing ovation for a clearance? That is how good Dunk’s effort was and the applause went on for a good 90 seconds afterwards.

The reprieve was sadly short lived as another 90 seconds after everyone had stopped going delirious over Dunk, City took the lead.

A mistake from Robert Sanchez saw him spill a Foden shot, allowing Silva to roll the ball towards Ilkay Gundogan who scored from close range.

Brighton felt Sanchez had been impeded and although VAR took a look, the goal was allowed to stand. Had the same incident happened up the other end and involved Neal Maupay and Ederson, you do wonder if referee Chris Friend would have reached the same conclusion. There could be no doubting though that Sanchez needed to do better.

Goal number two arrived on 28 minutes and this time, Marc Cucurella was the man in blue and white behind it. A loose pass was intercepted by Silva, who showed unreal vision to hit a 60 yard through ball, splitting the Albion defence in two and releasing Grealish.

He bore down on Sanchez’s goal before unselfishly squaring to Foden who finished despite the best efforts of Burn attempting to get back.

Three minutes later and it was game over. Grealish drew a save from the feet of Sanchez, the loose ball fell to Jesus whose effort was turned towards the near post by Foden.

Sanchez got close enough to it to make a save but failed to keep the ball out, conceding another goal that he will have been disappointed with.

Brighton had shipped five goals in eight matches before the visit of City. In 31 minutes, the champions had put three past the Albion.

They had nine shots in the first half alone, more than any other Premier League team has managed in any other game so far this season.

The difference in quality between the Citizens and any other opponent who Brighton have faced so far is astounding. All of which makes what happened in the second half so encouraging.

From a run rate which would have had City running out 9-0 winners, the Albion were the better side once Potter had got his players in at the break.

Part of that was because City took their foot off the pedal with the game won. Part of it was also because Enock Mwepu and the outstanding Tariq Lamptey were able to take the game to the visitors in a way which had simply not been possible in the opening 45 minutes.

For many Albion fans, this was the first time that they had witnessed Lamptey in the flesh. What his 30 minutes on the pitch showed us is that he is even more enjoyable to watch live than he is on the television.

One glorious moment saw him twist and turn his way out of what appeared to be a dead end, escaping both Grealish and another City player to tee up a chance for Leandro Trossard which was saved.

Gross had come close prior to that once he had been relieved of his duties as an unorthodox centre back, drawing a good block from Ederson.

A teasing March cross was just out of reach of Maupay and Trossard hit a drive straight at the City goalkeeper after good work from Jakub Moder.

City were concerned enough for Ederson to pick up a booking for time wasting. Mr Friend meanwhile infuriated an increasingly irate Amex crowd with a series of bizarre decisions, most notably when awarding a throw in which was quite clearly a corner.

It says a lot about how good City are that on an evening with a referee so desperately poor, he still managed to have little bearing on the final score bar the possible impedement of Sanchez for the the opener.

Eventually, Mr Friend did decided to award Brighton something. There were nine minutes remaining when Mwepu jinked into the box and managed to lure Ederson into bringing him down.

It was a clever piece of play from The Computer. He had little chance of getting a shot off or finding a team mate with a pass as he was heading harmlessly out play with the ball, so instead showed Ederson just enough to convince the City keep he could get there before Mwepu allowed his trailing leg to be caught.

With Maupay and Gross off the pitch, taking duties fell to Alexis Mac Allister. Argentina v Brazil from 12 yards and although Ederson guessed right and did brilliantly to get a hand to the spot kick, it had too much power to be kept out.

Memories of May when Brighton stirred from two goals behind to beat Manchester City 3-2 briefly flickered in the minds of Albion fans.

There was to be no repeat though and in injury time, Riyad Mahrez popped up for his normal goal against the Seagulls as it finished Brighton 1-4 Man City.

Guardiola had words of praise for Brighton afterwards, as he usually does when City run out routine victors over a Potter outfit.

“They have all the mechanisms of a big team,” Guardiola said afterwards, a far cry from when he stormed down the tunnel and refused to shake Potter’s hand five months ago as Brighton had the nerve to beat his team.

Does Guardiola consider Potter the best English manager in the world again? Probably. Our Graham will need to show all his managerial might again in a week’s time with the small matter of a visit to Liverpool.

Another tough test of Brighton’s top four (rather than title) credentials…