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Manchester City 4-0 Brighton & Hove Albion | Talking Points

Manchester City picked up a comprehensive 4-0 win over Brighton and Hove Albion at the Etihad Stadium, with Kun Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne shining for the Citizens.

Some good work by David Silva led to a very early City lead (68 seconds in), after De Bruyne tapped home a pass squared to him by the Spaniard. Minutes before half time, Sergio Aguero finished – with authority – a deftly carved team goal to give City a cushion.

He found the net once more on the other side of half time, before assisting substitute Bernardo Silva, who scored with his first touch of the game.

Despite being on the end of a 4-0 drubbing, Brighton’s gaffer had earned significant praise from Pep Guardiola. “Few teams come here to play with this courage,” he said. “Managers like Graham are good for football – really good.”

Aymeric Laporte’s injury

When Aymeric Laporte went to ground, the signs were not at all good. Coming off worse in the collision, the Frenchman had to be stretchered off the pitch. He has subsequently flown to Barcelona for further tests on his knee, and was pictured wearing a knee support brace.

So far, the club has not revealed the true nature of his injury and the extent to which he will be out of action. This is left the fans braced for the worst injury of them all: that to the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL), which may see his season end right there.

Fernandinho will likely slot into the centre half position until John Stones has regained match fitness and match sharpness. Analogous to what City did against the likes of Arsenal towards the 2nd half of last season, Fernandinho may be deployed as a ‘false centre back’, effectively joining the midfield whenever City are in possession.

However, this will test City’s squad depth to further limits, with only three senior recognised centre-halves starting the season, and the best out of those now injured, likely for the long run. It places great responsibility on Nicolas Otamendi as well, both defending wise and even disciplinary. It may even call Eric Garcia up to the first team on a regular basis after the youngster impressed in his limited outings last season.

Gabriel Jesus and breaking into the first XI

Gabriel Jesus displayed terrific signs of enthusiasm and positioning in the game against West Ham, and then again when he came on against Tottenham.

However, Aguero’s sizzling hot form has kept him rued to the bench despite bright showings. With Benjamin Mendy still not back to full fitness (Implying a lack of ability to play a 3-5-2 formation with both Aguero and Jesus up top), one wonders how Jesus will breakthrough into the first XI for the big games at this rate.

This is exacerbated by the fact that Aguero is now effectively chasing a podium position on the list of all-time Premier League goalscorers, and his motivation has never been higher.

Phil Foden’s restricted minutes

One decision of Guardiola that puzzled City fans on social media was that to bring on Ilkay Gundogan at 3-0 up in the match, opting to leave wonder-kid Phil Foden on the bench.

This subsequently led to rumored approaches by the likes of AS Roma to take Foden on loan, which were immediately rebutted by Guardiola. This was the first time questions arose regarding Foden’s future at the club, and while they may ultimately prove to be completely baseless, one has to accord some degree of weight to the situation

Brighton: Close, but lacking end-product

Brighton came close to finding the back of City’s net several times and had it not been for a point-blank save by Ederson and a truly sensational block by Fernandinho, City’s defence would have been breached, twice. Unfortunately, Brighton did not help themselves in this regard, with Leandro Trossard unable to convert 2 very presentable and inviting chances. 2To their favour, Brighton held 46% possession and completed 523 passes (Within 100 of City), something which few bottom-half teams have been able to do, which explains the praise heaped by Guardiola on Porter.

Up Next:

The international break comes at a welcome time for Manchester City, with news on Aymeric Laporte unable to come fast enough. After the break, they travel to newly-promoted Norwich City, while Brighton look to test and build on their fluid football at home against a cagey Burnley side.

Ayush Verma

20. Student at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. Manchester City correspondent for 90MAAT

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