In the late August sunshine at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City eased to victory over Brighton scoring 4 goals and keeping a clean sheet.
However, whilst watching it did not always feel like this would be the outcome. Manchester City huffed and puffed at some points and there were periods when the crowd were incredulous as Brighton seemed to think it was their ball.
Brighton knocked the ball around with ease and kept their alternating systems pretty fluid – with a tightly packed 2 banks of four when in defensive mode which quickly split into runners seeking space behind our full backs. To their credit, Brighton even kept up their efforts when 4 goals down.
City started incisively with runners probing at Brighton and were rewarded with a first goal within the second minute of the kick off. Raheem Sterling created space for David Silva to run into and he slid the ball across the penalty area to the path of Kevin De Bruyne who thumped the ball home.
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The surprise in the game was that despite this early goal, City drifted – allowing Brighton to move the ball around, and bar a miss from Silva, barely threatened the Brighton goal for the next half an hour. The crowd attempted several times to lift the team, but there was a distinct feeling of City sitting comfortably in the lower gears, waiting.
The danger when City start coasting is that one moment of indecision, one poor pass can leave us so exposed given we play such a high line up the pitch. Play started to break down on the left as Oleks Zinchenko and Sterling failed to control the spaces on the wing and a number of times Aymeric Laporte was required to offer cover.
Unfortunately in the aftermath of one of these periods of broken play, Laporte was attempting to cover the lines and was caught in a clumsy clash with Ben Webster and immediately stayed down. He appeared to have twisted and over extended his knee whilst making the interception and his scream was audible in the crowd.
This took place in the same part of the pitch as we watched Benjamin Mendy sustain a knee injury in the sunshine against Crystal Palace some 2 years ago.
Laporte left the pitch on a stretcher and we hope the injury is not as serious as it first seemed. Fernandinho was introduced as the replacement, with Nicolas Otamendi moving across to the left centre back role.
Just before the half time break City doubled their lead. Riyad Mahrez flicked the ball into the path of De Bruyne and he cut the ball back to Sergio Aguero. Aguero danced around a couple of defenders, securing enough space to unleash a shot which powered into the roof of the net.
After the break Brighton came at City a little more and if they had some more attacking quality could have come away with a goal. Ederson was forced into making a good save and it felt like the next goal would be pivotal. If Brighton scored it then we would have an anxious last half hour.
We need not have worried as Silva and Aguero combined again, leaving Aguero to curl a beautiful shot into the top corner from the edge of the area.
Bernardo came on for David Silva and scored within seconds of his introduction with his very first touch of the ball. Aguero was this time the provider but there was still much for Bernardo to do to squeeze his shot in from a tight angle.
The last 10 minutes dwindled into a training game of passing.
City were ruthless again in the attacking phases of the game, but will still need to maintain their concentration and application for longer periods in matches if they are to retain their title. The good news is they are very much on course for doing this, but there is a long season ahead.