Opposition View: Manchester City
If you believe the bookies, then there is more chance of Les Dennis becoming the next Prime Minister of Great Britain than there is of Brighton beating Manchester City in the semi finals of the FA Cup.
Some firms are quoting prices as big as 28/1 for the Seagulls to cause an upset. It isn’t hard to see why. Pep Guardiola’s side are chasing an historic quadruple and the City manager could probably rest 18 of his 25 man squad, send out just seven players at Wembley and still be confident of winning the game.
It’s a formality, right? In order to find out the viewpoint from Manchester, we spoke to James Sproston from Main Stand Musings about City’s hopes of lifting four trophies, how seriously they’ll be taking the FA Cup and what is Brighton’s best chance of springing a surprise. Oh, and we may have mentioned that famous night when the Albion last took on the Citizens in a cup game…
Manchester City are having a remarkable season with the quadruple still very much on the cards. Do you think you can do it?
When you look at our remaining fixtures game-by-game, you’d back us against any of them. You can never go into a cup game and be sure you’ll win it, but City haven’t lost against any of the teams left in the FA Cup this season. We’ve also got the bottle in the shootout too, beating Wolves, Leicester (twice) and Chelsea on penalties over the last two seasons.
Drawing Spurs in the Champions League gives us a good chance to advance, and the traditionally strong European teams don’t seem to be firing this season it seems the best chance we’ve ever had in the competition.
Winning a second league title on the bounce would be a first for City, and still looks on the cards. I imagine it’ll come right down to the wire on the final day where we travel to the Amex, and as much as I have nothing against Brighton fans, lifting the cup in East Sussex rather than East Manchester seems like a disappointment.
Even so, when you look at the games as a block, you can’t see us maintaining a 100% record between now and the end of May. We’ve been talked about for the quadruple every season that we’ve gone on to win the Premier League and we’ve never managed to pull off more than a double, so I can’t see it happening.
Where would you rank winning the FA Cup in terms of importance?
I want to see us lift the FA Cup more than anything else this season. For City fans it’s more special than most trophies. We were the first Manchester club to win a major trophy when we beat Bolton Wanderers in the 1904 final, and our victory in 1956 is still remembered as the final where Bert Trautmann broke his neck but continued to play. The FA Cup also capped off our best era when we won in 1969, when Neil Young scored the winner against Leicester in the iconic red and black kit. When he died in 2011, City fans applauded in the 24th minute of every FA Cup game, which was the minute he scored in that final, as a tribute to him and what he’d done for the club.
It was our first trophy since 1976 when we won it in 2011 and we’ve not won it since. It’s one Pep hasn’t won yet and if we win the league as well, it’d be the first domestic treble in English football history, which would be massive for us. City fans feel like the club’s history has been forgotten so laying down an English football first would properly cement us in the record books.
What sort of team do you think Pep Guardiola will send out? Will he have one eye on the Champions League?
As much as Brighton fans might wish for a second-rate City team, I can’t see anything other than Pep deploying his best XI. Pep has always taken cup competitions seriously because he knows what it means to the fans to have a good cup run, and he’ll only start thinking about Spurs when he’s on his way back to Manchester on Saturday evening. This squad are used to playing a huge number of games each season, and with Fernandinho, De Bruyne and Mendy all fresh after injuries, I think we’re in the best possible shape for it.
What advice would you give Chris Hughton in terms of how to pull off a shock win against City?
Concede first. It might sound contradictory, but City are very liable to complacency when they go one goal ahead. Three of our four losses this season have come about after we’ve scored first, and against teams outside of the top six.
Brighton should fancy their chances. Hughton’s teams always play well against us, and if you can hit us at the right time on the counter then City could start rocking and its Brighton’s game to win. I seriously hope that doesn’t happen, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all.
Who have been City’s key men this season and who do you expect to be your main threats at Wembley?
Anyone who’s followed City this season will know that last season’s heroes haven’t shone anywhere near as much this year. De Bruyne, David Silva and Sané have all had poor spells this term, and other players have really taken up the mantle. Raheem Sterling’s rise to Player of the Year contender has been well-documented, and rightly so, but the biggest star for me has been Bernardo Silva. He was given his opportunity in the middle when De Bruyne got injured and he’s made himself undroppable since. It’s not only his creative flair that has caught people’s eye, but his defensive workrate is second to none in the league this season.
Fernandinho, Ederson and Aguero all look as good as they were last season, if not better, and the defensive partnership of Laporte and Stones is among Europe’s best. All of those players could hurt Brighton at Wembley. I wouldn’t even bet against Ederson getting on the scoresheet if he fancies getting one for himself.
This is our first visit to Wembley for a proper game since 1991. Any advice from a club who visits on a frequent basis of how best to enjoy the day?
Expect to lose. It might sound grim, but the earlier you come to terms with that, the more you’ll just be able to enjoy the occasion. If you’re too nervous then you’ll be too busy biting your nails rather than chanting your team on. The fans nerves also translate onto the pitch. I’ve seen that first hand a number of times, but none more pertinently so than in the 2012 final. We went into that expecting to beat Wigan and we deservedly lost.
When City made their first appearance at the new Wembley in 2011, we faced a fancied Manchester United team. Few fans would allow themselves to dream of an FA Cup final, still shackled to the ‘typical City’ mentality that had burdened us for decades. We won and I still can’t quite believe it. A lot of people don’t think there should be Wembley semi-finals but that game is case and point as to why there should be.
Last time Brighton and Man City met in a cup competition we actually managed to knock you out. Do you have any memories of that night at Withdean in 2008?
Don’t bloody remind me. To see Michael Ball on the same pitch as Jô still gives me shivers. They each represented the old and the new at City, whilst both being just as bad as each other. That season embodied the biggest and quickest transition in our history, which is why players like Ball and Richard Dunne found themselves playing alongside Robinho, and that week typified that confused unbalance in the team.
I seem to remember City winning away in Cyprus and then beating Portsmouth 6-0 at the weekend, only to be humbled by League One Brighton in the League Cup. I couldn’t tell you who scored, but I remember the penalty shootout and how it turned my legs to jelly. It was almost as bad as Darius Vassell missing a penalty against United in 2007 that would have cost them the title. Sickening stuff.
Finally, a prediction for Saturday please?
Some punters think this will be a walkover for City, but I can see it being anything but. It won’t be a thriller and it won’t be pretty but I think City will come away with a 2-0 win. I’ll be truly delighted if we do, because I know we’ll have to work hard for it. City have got the players to rise to the big occasion, but I know Brighton will leave absolutely nothing on that pitch come the final whistle. Knowing City we’ll probably lose and we’ll deserve to. That’d be a typical City thing to do.
Thanks to James for answering our questions. As we said to him afterwards, presuming we’re safe by the final day of the season we will happily see the Albion lose to City if it means Liverpool don’t win the title. You can follow James and Main Stand Musings on Twitter.
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