Man City 3-1 Brighton: Beaten by Haaland, De Bruyne and Pawson

Sometimes, you just have to hold your hands up and admit you were beaten by a few special individuals. In the case of Man City 3-1 Brighton, the Albion had no answer to the Citizen’s three best players on the day at the Etihad Stadium – Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and Craig Pawson.

Haaland scored twice in the first half to show Seagulls supporters first-hand why he is going to tear up Premier League goalscoring records.

De Bruyne hit a magnificent strike at a crucial time for City, when Brighton were on top and the home crowd and players were beginning to become a little panicked.

As for Pawson, well, where to begin? Playing City is tough enough with their squad costing a billion petrodollars. When they have a man advantage thanks to a set of officials who might as well be wearing sky blue shirts, then it becomes nigh-on impossible.

Pawson looked so out of his depth that it would not be a surprise to see him appointed by the Conservative Party as the next Prime Minister. The Tories seem to pride utter incompetence over anything else in a leader and Pawson had it in spades at the Etihad.

There were three big decisions to be made in the first half and Pawson and VAR got every single one wrong. Haaland went down in the area, caught by Sanchez as he attempted to collect De Bruyne’s pass and go around the Albion number one. City probably should have had a penalty. They weren’t given one.

City’s opener was then allowed to stand in controversial circumstances. Ederson pumped a long ball over the top. The Albion defence were caught out, leaving Haaland to skip past Sanchez racing out of his area.

Adam Webster did well to recover and it looked like he was going to nick the ball away from Haaland until the City striker barged him out the way. Webster went flying, Haaland had an open goal to aim at and City led 1-0.

VAR looked but decided that Haaland knocking Webster to the ground was a fair challenge. Which is exactly the sort of decision you get when you are Manchester City playing at home at the Etihad Stadium.

Had it taken place at the other end and involved Danny Welbeck pushing Aymeric Laporte out of the way, you know the outcome would have been very different.

City doubled their lead on the stroke of half time from the penalty spot. Presumably, Mr Pawson was looking to even things up having not given that early spot kick against Sanchez.

Bernardo Silva quite clearly moved his leg into a wholly unnatural position to initiate contact with Lewis Dunk. Silva went down like he had been shot; yet despite those theatrics, nobody thought it was anything other than amateur dramatics in an attempt to con the officials.

Brighton went up the other end and Solly March had a shot blocked. By the time Mr Pawson was trotting over to the pitch side monitor to take a look, it felt like the game had been going on for another 23 minutes.

It took Mr Pawson an age to decide that Silva dangling out a leg to catch Dunk and then diving like Tom Daley was actually worthy of a penalty. Haaland did the rest and Brighton trailed 2-0 at half time.

There was an even more stupid piece of refereeing to come in the second half, overshadowed by VAR and those moments that gifted City a two-goal lead.

Pascal Gross put in a firm but fair challenge. Mr Pawson waved play on, a sign that he believed there was nothing wrong with the tackle.

The home fans screamed and so 10 seconds later, Mr Pawson blew his whistle. His mind had been changed not only on whether Gross had committed a foul, but also that said foul was bad enough to warrant a yellow card for Der Kaiser.

At that point, Mr Pawson might as well have handed his whistle to a bloke in the stands. He was refereeing based on what City wanted rather than what was actually happening. Type Big Six Bias into Google and it should just show you Man City 3-1 Brighton from now on.

Roberto De Zerbi refused to be drawn on the performance of the officials afterwards. He instead wanted to focus on how well Brighton had played in the second half.

A lot of City fans said afterwards that the Albion were the best side to visit the Etihad for some time. Between the 45th and 75th minutes, Brighton were magnificent – even better than that blistering first 20 minutes of the 3-3 draw with Liverpool in De Zerbi’s first game at the helm.

De Zerbi deserves credit. It was his half time change at the Etihad which helped turn the tide. Adam Lallana was replaced by Tariq Lamptey, who pushed high up the right with March doing the same on the left.

Leandro Trossard moved central to support Danny Welbeck and Brighton suddenly had a front three with Trossard in behind to take the game to City. The hosts did not have a clue how to deal with it.

The Albion started knocking the ball around City in one-touch triangles, beating the champions at their own game. How often do you see a Guardiola side chasing shadows, attempting to regain possession from an opponent toying with them in such a manner?

It took just eight minutes of the second half for Brighton to pull one back. Sanchez blocked a Riyad Mahrez effort with his feet, enabling the Albion to launch a counter.

Gross passed 40 yards from right to left. March laid off to Trossard and he went for goal early, catching Ederson by surprise with a powerful effort which went in at the near post. The Albion had their first goal in approaching 330 minutes of football.

There were chances for more. Alexis Mac Allister whistled a distance drive just over the bar. Brighton went from front-to-back with a brilliant passing move ended when Ederson pounced to collect Lamptey’s header into a dangerous area.

Trossard surged forward on a 40 yard run, getting to within 10 yards of the City goal where Ederson had to stay big and make a crucial save.

The importance of that stop from the City goalkeeper was made clear within 120 seconds. Silva passed to De Bruyne 30 yards out, from where the City captain bent an effortless shot into the top left hand corner of the Albion goal. Game over.

What we saw in the second half of Man City 3-1 Brighton is that the Albion are dangerous opponents against teams who do not sit back and defend.

The same problem which dogged Graham Potter throughout his time as Brighton boss remains under De Zerbi. Good performances against Liverpool and City; less so when Spurs, Brentford and Nottingham Forest parked the bus and the Albion could not score from 54 shots.

Potter and Chelsea of course are the next visitors to the Amex. The Blues will surely come and attack Brighton and that will play into De Zerbi and the Albion’s hands; not to mention that the players and fans should be fired up to give the bloke who walked out on the club a bloody nose.

If the football script writers have been saving De Zerbi’s first win as Brighton manager for the visit of Chelsea, then that seems like an acceptable trade off for the Italian not tasting victory in five games so far. And if the Albion play like they did in Man City 3-1 Brighton, they surely have a chance.