(Note to readers- this article was written before the disappointing 2-1 loss to Brighton, but because of my work I wasn’t able to publish it in time. Sorry!)
Manchester City travel to the south coast to face Brighton and Hove Albion in the Premier League.
The Blues are coming off the back of a disappointing 2-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur last week, and have reportedly since lost Rayan Cherki to injury.
But they’ll be boosted by fellow new signing Rayan Ait-Nouri’s injury being nothing more than a scare,
and their opponent’s winless start to the league season.
Here are five things to look out for against Fabian Hurzeler’s side:
Reijnders starting as the ten
With rumours circling about Cherki’s injury and the performance of the Dutchman in City’s opening league game, I expect Tijjani Reijnders to start against the Seagulls.
The 27-year-old excelled with a goal and assist against Wolves but like many of his teammates, was much poorer against Spurs.
I expect Bernardo Silva to return to the side to allow Reijnders a bit more freedom, and also seeing as it seems Phil Foden might be injured too (he hasn’t been called up for England duty or been pictured in training this week.)
City’s number 4 has the qualities to thrive in what will probably be an open game, and if he performs as well as he did at Molineux he’ll be the difference between the two sides.
Trafford remaining in goal
For the third week in a row, we’re left with the conundrum as to who to start between the sticks.
Against Wolves, Pep Guardiola opted for James Trafford as his number one, and it paid off. The Englishman kept a cleansheet and had an overall solid performance.
But against Spurs, he made an error playing out from the back leading to Joao Palhinha’s goal, and question marks arise as to whether we’ll see him or Ederson in net.
But I think Guardiola will stick with Trafford. Ederson’s future is very much still up in the air, with Fenerbahce joining Galatasaray in their interest for the Brazilian goalkeeper.
Also, Trafford will only improve his ball playing skills with more minutes, and until City potentially replace Ederson with Gianluigi Donnarumma, Trafford has the securest future at the club and should definitely be prioritised over a player who’s openly exploring a move away.
Battle of playing out from the back
But the argument for playing Ederson of course comes with his world class ball playing ability.
Brighton under Fabian Hurzeler (and previously under Roberto de Zerbi and Graham Potter) press high out of possession and look to build up from the back, just like City under Guardiola.
Goalkeepers are encouraged to play it short, but both Ederson and Bart Vebruggen recorded assists last season (Ederson got four) by playing accurate long balls over the top of a high press.
I suspect both sides will try their best to play through the aggressive high press of the other side, and it’ll be interesting to see the clash of styles.
Another Haaland goal
Erling Haaland was poor against Spurs (though who wasn’t?) but was exceptionally sharp in front of goal against Wolves, bagging twice.
He always tends to start the season well and has an excellent goal scoring record against Brighton, scoring two goals against them last season even though City only picked up one point from those two matches.
I expect the big Norwegian striker to score again, and ultimately help City to a victory.
A game at an important time
Speaking of which, I think City will win against the Seagulls, and it is a very important game for them.
After the international break, the Blues have a treacherous run of fixtures; Manchester United in the derby, Kevin de Bruyne’s Napoli in the UEFA Champions League and Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium – all in the space of a week.
If City fail to beat Brighton and come out of that spell without a win either, they’ll be playing catch up before the season has properly gotten into gear, which would severely weaken their chances of regaining the Premier League title.
It’s important that City go into the international break high on confidence ahead of the upcoming fixtures; it’s perhaps a bit early to make such a claim, but it could be season-defining.
