Manchester City v Brighton Match Preview

Manchester City face Brighton at home in the Premier League this weekend.

It hardly seems 10 minutes since a Gabriel Jesus headed goal gave Manchester City victory at Wembley over Brighton and Hove Albion in the FA Cup Semi Final, let alone the 4:1 win away from home on the final day of the Premier League season which secured the title.

And now Manchester City are lining up against Brighton again in the Premier League, but this time it is at the Etihad Stadium where we have been pretty dominant under Pep Guardiola.

Brighton have a new manager in place and the early signs are they are attempting to play a more open and possession based attacking style. However, if they attempt such an open formation against City this weekend they may well become unstuck.

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A draw against West Ham and a 3:0 away win at Watford suggested Brighton had some new manager bounce under Graham Potter, but that seemed to evaporate with last weekend’s loss to Southampton. Although to be fair the 30th minute dismissal of Florin Andone for a horror challenge probably had a big influence upon the final result too.

Coming into this match against City, Brighton will be keen to get something out of the game and may well fancy to put us under pressure – especially if we have still failed to score as the game enters the last quarter. But it should be pointed out that since returning to the top flight, City have actually won all 5 games in which we have faced Brighton – and that run should not be coming to an end on Saturday.

City have not quite reached full power so far this season and Guardiola may be keen to try and get a positive result to take us into the first of the international football breaks. We all know our play – especially in the attacking phases – is so strong at times we are threatening a team with a thrashing. Brighton could well be the victims, especially if they concede an early goal.

Guardiola has a number of options to choose from and weighing up the opposition may well decide to rotate some of his team again. We have already suffered three injuries to first team players – Stones, Sane and Jesus – so hopefully we can avoid anything further in the coming months.

I suspect Guardiola will start Cancelo in this game, having brought him on for a cameo last week. This will see Walker drop to the bench. Rodri will come back in at defensive midfield, where he will be marshalled by De Bruyne. I suspect David Silva will not start this match and his slot will go to any one of three players – Foden, Gundogan or Bernardo. Maybe Bernardo if Cancelo starts to offer that support.

Up front is where our options become more limited – so Sergio Aguero and Raheem Sterling will both be on the team sheet. The question is about what may happen on the right side of attacking midfield. I have a feeling this is a game where Mahrez will start and hopefully get back to his best again.

The spectre of daft VAR decisions may haunt some of this match again, but a large scoreline may help to exorcise some of those ghosts from the Etihad, once and for all.

Next. City Draw Preston in Carabao Cup. dark

Predicted Starting XI

Ederson

Cancelo, Otamendi, Laporte, Zinchenko

Rodri, De Bruyne, Bernardo

Mahrez, Aguero, Sterling