Key events
41 min: Veltman goes long. Ederson races out of his box and blooters the ball straight back. We heart the 1980s.
39 min: Dunk attempts to spring Welbeck clear down the inside-right channel with a forensic pass from deep. It’s a decent move, but the striker takes off a fraction too soon. Up pops the flag. “So Scott, was it more Houchen or van Persie?” writes Gary Naylor, who may have a point about the latter.
37 min: Barco, trying to make amends for his part in Brighton’s downfall, launches a pearler goalwards from a tight angle on the left. Walker blocks. Barco has another go. That’s deflected out for a corner, from which nothing occurs. A little better from Brighton. Baby steps as they attempt to find a route back.
35 min: Veltman skittles Foden, then whacks the ball away in frustration. Into the book he goes. It’s all going wrong for Brighton, who are being ruthlessly smothered by City.
GOAL! Brighton 0-3 Manchester City (Foden 34)
Brighton get too clever playing out from their own box. Barco, Steele and Baleba ping it around in triangles. City press, sending five men into the Brighton box. Brighton nearly escape, but a mistake is inevitable. Barco passes straight to Silva, and the deflection falls to Foden, who lashes an immediate shot across Steele and into the bottom left.
33 min: “De Bruyne’s new hair gave the angle for the ball to go over the keeper’s dive,” argues Paul Ruffley. “Old hair, no goal.” And you thought the debate regarding the restorative qualities of Sean Dyche’s tracksuit was tenuous enough.
31 min: Kovacic slips Walker into the box on the right. Walker fizzes a low ball into the six-yard box. Steele bravely flops onto it, with City boots in the immediate environs. The champions pressing hard for a third that would surely kill the game off in short order.
30 min: The early speculative rake from Welbeck apart, Brighton simply haven’t got going. City haven’t allowed them to. “I think it’s unfair that a player as good as Kevin de Bruyne is with his feet, can also score flying headers,” writes Kári Tulinius. “Humans should have flaws.”
28 min: The away fans giving it plenty of Blue Moon. Speaking of terrace favourites, here’s Peter Walker, retired chess correspondent to the Ilford Recorder group of newspapers: “You mention the ‘chess-heads’ in your recent paragraph. The real geeky chess buffs may have noted a chess-related link to today’s affairs: the song Sussex by the Sea, played by the band earlier, was written by one Mr. Ward-Higgs, who was himself a bit of a chess player and donated the Ward-Higgs trophy which is competed for annually by British counties’ first teams at correspondence chess – where moves are sent by post! Essex have a very good record in this event.”
GOAL! Brighton 0-2 Manchester City (Foden 26)
… but it’s Foden who takes it! He sends it towards the bottom left. The ball pings off the back of Gross, and into the middle of the net, past a wrong-footed Steele, who was heading off in the pre-deflection direction. City making a statement here!
25 min: Foden dribbles hard down the inside-right channel and falls just to the side of the D. It looks like a slip, but the referee says he’s been clipped. A free kick in a very dangerous position. The De Bruyne peepers light up.
23 min: De Bruyne fancies it tonight, and drives at the Brighton back line. He takes a shot from the edge of the D. It’s deflected wide right for a corner. The set piece drops to Alvarez, who chests down on the edge of the box and sends a half-volley wide right. Brighton hanging on a bit here.
21 min: Some header by De Bruyne, though. There haven’t been many better goals this season. He launched himself at the ball, sending it over the despairing lunge of Steele and into the top corner. The Brighton keeper must wonder how on earth he managed to score from there. Sensational.
19 min: De Bruyne sends Alvarez storming down the right. Alvarez reaches the box and sends a screaming low drive across Steele and inches wide of the left-hand post. So close to a quick-fire second.
18 min: That was a hell of a goal. A baptism of fire for Brighton left-back Valentín Barco, 19, making his full debut tonight. Brighton respond through Joao Pedro, who wins a corner down the left. Dunk wins a header but plants it straight at Ederson. Still, that’s a decent bounce-back from the hosts.
GOAL! Brighton 0-1 Manchester City (De Bruyne 17)
Foden slips Walker into space down the right. Walker cuts back from the byline. De Bruyne, rushing into the box, launches himself at the ball, Keith Houchen style … and sends an outrageous flying header looping into the top-right corner! Wow!
15 min: Baleba skittles Kovacic, 30 yards out on the left. Foden sends a long out-swinger into the box. Ake springs the Brighton back line and meets the dropping ball, 12 yards out, with a telescopic leg. The ball is always heading over the bar. It was a chance that required a hell of a finish … but a chance nonetheless.
13 min: Should Brighton lose tonight, it’d be their 100th defeat in the Premier League. Their first in the competition, back in August 2017, came against … no prizes … Manchester City.
12 min: City are in no rush whatsoever. It’s one for the chess-heads right now.
10 min: City continue to stroke it around patiently.
8 min: Now Steele executes a glorious drag-back to fox Alvarez in the box. He’s in confident mood tonight.
7 min: City slow things down with some of the old sterile domination. Then suddenly a long pass down the left. Steele races out of his goal and gets to the ball before Alvarez, then plays a cute exchange with Dunk to get Brighton out of trouble and put an end to the City attack.
5 min: Joao Pedro steals the ball in midfield and races into the City half. He’s got options on either side but takes the wrong one, passing to Veltman on his right. Veltman runs into trouble immediately and the counter peters out. “Greetings from Virginia,” begins Eagle Brosi. “The quality of the American league is so poor that I’m usually happy to catch any EPL match but I find Pep without Jack Grealish to be so so boring. There’s something so horribly funny about watching Jack, with his tiny shinpads, run into his opponent, fall down and see the ref just get totally conned. I guess spending the preseason drunk isn’t wise? But I miss the only likeable/watchable thing about this City team. Here’s hoping he gets at least a 15-minute cameo.”
3 min: Gross makes a nuisance of himself down the inside-left channel. The ball breaks to Welbeck, arriving on the overlap. Welbeck lashes a low first-time effort towards the bottom right, but Ederson fields it at full stretch. A bright start by both teams.
2 min: It’s not long before City are on the attack, and Alvarez probes down the left. He doesn’t get any change out of Veltman, who clears. “Liverpool’s season may have become as appetising as days-old leftover fish and chips, but I’m not ready to bin it just yet,” writes Peter Oh. “I wish I had more to count on than Adam Lallana conjuring a spectacle-crushing attacking spectacle today, but at this point I’ll take any tiny scrap of hope I can get.”
City get the ball rolling. Watching in the stand, having been introduced on the pitch a few minutes ago, Brighton fan Russ Cook. Last weekend Cook ran the London Marathon in the immediate wake of completing a 9,940-mile run along the entire length of Africa. A gentle warm-down, apparently.
The teams are out! Brighton in their “classic Albion blue and white stripes”, Manchester City in a third-choice back-and-blue “electric spark pattern powered by the team’s lightning fast style of play and the atmosphere it creates between the fans, players and staff”. Puma putting a bit more effort into their press release there than Nike. We’ll be off after a quick blast of Sussex by the Sea.
Roberto De Zerbi speaks to Sky. “We have to play well … we have to make points … we are fighting to reach another season in European position and it is not finished yet for us … Pep is the best coach … it is very tough playing against City and Pep … we are Brighton … we play with courage … we try to play a good game … it has been a very tough season … especially from January it is difficult to choose the first 11 … we have the quality enough to play well to fight for ourselves, for our fans and our club.”
Pep talks to Sky. “Madrid and Chelsea were really tough … we had two days rest … step by step, we had to be ready … it is important to be ready and fresh … the challenge is to win the next game … we have won a lot of titles in the Premier League because we were thinking just of the next game … to think further away from that is a big mistake … [Roberto De Zerbi] is brave … he will impose his game … they are just exceptional for so many reasons … his teams are so attractive … even with injuries the way he plays is recognisable … I like to watch it … I am hoping they suffer a little bit!”
Brighton make three changes to the side that drew 1-1 at Burnley 12 days ago. Adam Lallana, Valentin Barco and goalkeeper Jason Steele are in; Simon Adingra and Bart Verbruggen drop to the bench, while Pervis Estupinan is injured, his season done.
Manchester City are still without the injured Erling Haaland. They also make a change in goal, in the wake of their 1-0 FA Cup semi-final victory over Chelsea: Ederson comes in for Stefan Ortega. Elsewhere, Mateo Kovacic and Josko Gvardiol replace the benched John Stones and Jack Grealish.
The teams
Brighton & Hove Albion: Steele, Veltman, van Hecke, Dunk, Barco, Gross, Baleba, Lallana, Moder, Joao Pedro, Welbeck.
Subs: Verbruggen, Igor, Webster, Enciso, Adingra, Fati, Buonanotte, Offiah, O’Mahony.
Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Akanji, Ake, Gvardiol, Rodri, Kovacic, Bernardo Silva, De Bruyne, Foden, Alvarez.
Subs: Dias, Stones, Grealish, Doku, Ortega, Gomez, Matheus Luiz, Bobb, Lewis.
Referee: Jarred Gillett (Australia).
Your City team to face Brighton! 🩵
XI | Ederson, Walker (C), Akanji, Ake, Gvardiol, Rodrigo, Kovacic, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Foden, Alvarez
SUBS | Ortega, Dias, Stones, Grealish, Doku, Gomez, Nunes, Bobb, Lewis#ManCity | @etihad pic.twitter.com/PJGsBKmbHv
— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 25, 2024
Preamble
… and then there were two. OK, it’s true that Liverpool aren’t officially out of the title race yet, but … c’mon.
Manchester City are still very much in it, though, their destiny in their own hands. But Arsenal have points on the board, a bumper goal difference and the wind behind, so if the champions are going to win a record-breaking fourth title in a row, City really can’t afford any slip-ups as they hit the final turn. You’d expect them to get the job done tonight, given they’ve beaten Brighton 11 times in the last 13 meetings … but the other two matches were a 1-1 draw and a 3-2 defeat at the Amex, and those came in two of their last three visits. So nothing’s certain, especially not at the Business End when the nerves start to jangle. Arsenal fans (and overly optimistic Liverpool ones) are all Seagulls tonight. Kick-off is at 8pm BST. It’s on!