Brighton face wounded Man City and Haaland with a point to prove
Who else laughed when Manchester City lost at Liverpool? The prospect of an actual title race rather than another sportswashing coronation of Man City as champions made for an enjoyable Sunday right up until you remembered who Pep Guardiola and his squad costing a billion petrodollars would be taking out their wrath on – Brighton.
City were wounded by defeat at Anfield. They have also bristled at Jurgen Klopp’s comments that nobody can compete with clubs owned by oil-rich Gulf states, taking the normal defence of accusing anyone who brings up the subject or their vast wealth and the use of it to engage in sportswashing as being racist or xenophobic.
We saw it from Newcastle United’s owners, claiming the famous banner displayed by Crystal Palace fans was racist for pointing out the human rights abuses, war and state-sponsored assassinations carried out by Saudi Arabia.
City’s owners like to play the same card, like if you point out that slavery is commonplace or the LGBTQ+ community are persecuted in the UAE.
It was not really a surprise that they have gone after Klopp… anyone who talks about Abu Dhabi in a context not relating to Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland, Pep Guardiola, beautiful football and an Etihad Stadium trophy cabinet full of silverware risks their wrath. Sportswashing, plain and simple.
Guardiola and his players will want to prove that defeat against Liverpool was merely a blip. They will also want to get the conversation back onto football, about how they are likely to win another Premier League title, even with Arsenal going great guns at the top of the table.
Not a great time to be playing them, is it? Then there is Haaland. He looked almost human at Anfield. 20 goals in 14 City appearances have come from him barely seeming to get out of third gear.
If he moves into fourth or fifth gear in response to drawing a blank against Liverpool and his first competitive defeat as a City player, then it could be a very long afternoon indeed.
Adam Webster, Lewis Dunk and Joel Veltman struggled to contain Ivan Toney when Brighton lost 2-0 at Brentford last week.
Haaland is on an altogether different level. Those making the difficult trip to Manchester via Leeds, Sheffield and goodness knows where else due to the lack of direct trains might end up wishing that they had been given a 10-game ban like Dick Knight as an excuse to miss Man City v Brighton.
But then you remember what happened when Brighton went to Liverpool. Roberto De Zerbi took charge for the first time and it is the only game so far in which the new head coach has faced a side not set up to defend their way to a result.
It is not exactly news that the Albion struggle to find a way through such tactics. It happened regularly under Graham Potter. In fact, you could argue it was a problem he never solved.
The impressive 15 game run which earned Potter his £60 million contract at Chelsea were fixtures against teams none of whom sat back and parked the bus.
Arsenal away. Spurs away. Manchester United home and away. A West Ham side chasing Europa League football on the final day. West Ham away. Wolves away. Leicester. 1996 Coca Cola Cup runners up The Leeds United. The list goes on…
Before the three recent blanks against Spurs, Brentford and Nottingham Forest, the last time the Albion really faced a defensive side was when Potter delivered a 0-0 draw at home to Norwich City.
Potter was fortunate that he had a run of games against sides who attacked for one reason or another, masking the fact that Brighton could still not break down stubborn defences.
And it also partly explains why we sit here with Danny Welbeck as the only centre forward in the Albion squad trusted to play serious minutes in the Premier League. With zero goals to his name as Halloween approaches.
The point to all this being that Brighton probably have a better chance of scoring at somewhere like the Etihad Stadium against the reigning champions than they do when facing bottom-of-the-table Forest at the Amex.
De ZerbiBall managed three goals at Liverpool. It worked so wonderfully because the one-touch, intricate passing and desire to get forward had far more space to play in due the Reds also going on the attack.
Man City will attack Brighton. That works to the Albion’s advantage. Guardiola also has concerns over his defence, where he has rotated players this season because of the extreme workload being caused by cramming games in either side of the winter World Cup in Qatar.
This City side are not as impervious at the back as previous incarnations. Newcastle stuck three past them this season in the Human Rights Derby. Palace scored twice at the Etihad, Manchester United thrice.
Even Aston Villa got a point seven weeks before Steven Gerrard was handed his P45. Perhaps City were simply overawed by the fact that Villa won the 1982 European Cup? That can happen.
Not many people will expect Brighton to get a result at Man City. Not even many Albion fans. It seems a long way to go, to faff around on indirect trains, to have to carry a passport with you to prove who you are or collect a ticket at the turnstile just for defeat.
And defeat is probably likely. But do not be surprised if the Albion give a much better account of themselves than in the past three games.
City will play the sort of football which will play into De Zerbi’s hands. After 54 shots in 180 minutes yielding a grand total of zero goals, Brighton might actually find the back of the net away at Man City.
Okay, so Haaland might score six. And there might be hundreds of empty seats in the away end because fans cannot go due to the train strike, you can no longer pass on a ticket for fear of joining the life president in the gulag and the club refuse to issue refunds despite the measures they have put in place making it a lot harder to attend.
But wouldn’t a goal be nice? Just remember your photo ID, avoid shouting “I’m the life president of this ****ing football club” at the turnstiles and definitely don’t mention slavery, LGBTQ+ rights, capital punishment, oil money or sportswashing.
