Match Preview: Manchester City v Brighton

It’s been a relatively gentle introduction to life in the Premier League for Graham Potter. Watford, West Ham United and Southampton. Three teams who could well be around Brighton come the end of the campaign.

Now though, the new Albion boss is going to find out what managing a club in the top flight is really like. The Seagulls are off to take on Pep Guardiola’s back-to-back Premier League champions Manchester City; one of the greatest club sides in the history of the game who swept to an unprecedented domestic treble last season.

Under Chris Hughton, the only point in traipsing all the way to the Etihad Stadium would have been to sample some of Manchester’s brilliant pubs. We would have stuck 10 men behind the ball and tried to bore our away to a draw.

That isn’t Potter’s style. But if he goes there and plays 3-4-3 with as much attacking intent as we have seen in the three previous games, we could be on the end of a proper cricket score – and we’re not talking one as miserly as England’s in the first innings at Headingley last week.

So will it be 3-4-3 or 4-2-3-1? Play on the counter or try and force the issue? Nobody really knows, which is what makes this arguably our most intriguing trip to one of the big six since winning promotion.

A brief history of Manchester City
Manchester City were founded in 2008 when Abu Dhabi’s ruling family decided to diversify their portfolio from oil. The result has been the creation of oneo of the most successful clubs of the past decade with four Premier League titles, two FA Cups, four League Cups and three Community Shields going into what had previously been a pretty dusty trophy cabinet.

Manchester City last season
Given that City rewrote the record breaks in 2017-18 by gaining more points, scoring more goals and winning more games than anybody else in a Premier League season, it’s astonishing to think that they managed to be even better last time out.

Whereas their first title under Guradiola had been an absolute cakewalk, last season they were pushed all the way by Liverpool. That meant that City had to show guts and courage as well as class, winning every league game they played from the end of January.

For some clubs, being involved in such a battle for the title might have impacted their effectiveness in other domestic competitions but not City. By beating Chelsea in the Camila Cabello Cup Final and hammering Watford in the FA Cup, they became the first club in English football history to lift all three trophies in one season.

The only blot on their copybook remains a phobia of advancing beyond the semi finals of the Champions League. Although City’s owners aren’t as obsessed with becoming European champions as that Russian gangster down at Chelsea was during the early years of his residency at Stamford Bridge, they do need to add it to their collection if they’re to be considered a truly global giant.

The bad news for us is they’ve begun this season in equally imperious form. Were it not for an extremely controversial VAR intervention in their home draw with Tottenham Hotspur, City would have three wins from three. It could be a long afternoon for the Albion.

Head-to-head
Even before the petrol dollars arrived, City had spent most of their lifetime playing in the top two divisions which means that meetings with the Albion have been few and far between. And unsurprisingly, it’s City who dominate the head-to-head with 13 wins to Brighton’s four from the 22 games. The Rachel Riley’s among you will have deduced that there have been four draws.

You have to go all the way back to 1989 to find our last win in the fixture. That was a 2-1 second tier success at the Goldstone which resulted in the sacking of 41-year-old head ‘ball boy’ Keith Cuss. Keith’s crime? Heading a wayward pass up and over the back wall of the West Stand in a genius piece of time wasting as the game entered the final minutes.

None of those four victories have come away from home either. If the Albion do somehow manage to win at the Etihad then not only will they have pulled off the greatest miracle since Dean Gaffney married his wife (Google it, it’s too depressing for us to post), but they’ll have made history at the same time.

Brighton and Hove Albion’s head-to-head record with Manchester City

Last six meetings
• 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)
• Brighton 0-2 Manchester City (Premier League, 12/08/17)
• Brighton 2-2 Manchester City (League Cup, 24/09/08)

Only once in our past six meetings have the Albion managed to avoid defeat against City – but what a night that was. Just three days previously, the Citizens were underlying their status as the newly minted world’s richest club by hammering Portsmouth 6-1 in the Premier League. Micky Adams’ Brighton meanwhile were busy losing 1-0 at home to a Walsall side who played for over an hour with nine men.

Yet the roles were completely reversed at Withdean as the Seagulls knocked City out on penalties in one of the greatest League Cup shocks of all time. It also led to one of the most iconic moments at the Theatre of Trees, when someone in an electric wheelchair joined in the pitch invasion, only to be turned around just as they passed the 18 yard box and wheeled back to the disabled area by a mean-spirited steward.

Team news
The fact that Glenn Murray and Pascal Gross both completed 90 minutes in Tuesday night’s win at Bristol Rovers points toward them not being involved from the start against City. That in turn suggests that Potter might be looking to load his lineup with pace, which presumably means a counter attacking strategy is the plan.

Of course, this is all guess work. It would be extraordinarily bold if Potter were to go to the Etihad and play with three strikers – although he didn’t compromise his style when Swansea City took on Guardiola’s men in the FA Cup last season and it was only a couple of controversial refereeing decisions which prevented the Swans from pulling off an almighty shock. So who knows.

A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of Manchester City away
The Etihad Stadium was the first ground in the country we ever came across which sold Strongbow Dark Fruits on the away concourse. That resulted in a record-breaking three pints being put away during half time of our Wednesday night visit in 2018.

A bad WeAreBrighton.com memory of Manchester City away
Those three pints combined with two beforehand, countless beers in Manchester earlier in the day and a frankly unnecessary visit to a karaoke bar after the final whistle meant that the driver of the 1am National Express coach service from Manchester to London deemed the WeAreBrighton.com too inebriated to get on his bus. That resulted in a night sleeping in the coach station and an expensive ticket home the following morning. And all for a 3-1 defeat.

Our favourite player to play for Brighton and Manchester City
There were plenty of doubters when Gus Poyet brought Wayne Bridge in on loan from Manchester City for the 2012-13 season. Was he coming to the Amex to sit in the sun, picking up £40,000 a week of which the Albion would contribute £10,000?

The answer was a resounding no. Bridge was absolutely superb across the whole campaign and probably remains the best left back we’ve seen play for Brighton. There was also the added bonus of seeing Frankie at games on a semi-regular basis, confirming the fact that she’s even fitter in real life than she looks in Heat magazine. Not that we read Heat magazine.

What do we like about Manchester?
Coronation Street may not be anywhere near the levels of EastEnders, but it still makes for good viewing on occasions. The most impressive thing about Manchester though is its residents levels of resilience. Over the past 25 years, they’ve had a shopping centre blown up by the IRA and an Ariana Grande concert blown up by ISIS. And yet they’re still going strong. It’s remarkable.

Prediction
We might score a goal. We’re probably going to concede a shitload. 4-1 to City in a repeat of our meeting on the final day of last season.