Key events
12 min: That Gilmour chance was the result of some over-confident passing out from the back by Foden and Gundogan. Pretty much the only thing that can stop City from winning the treble is complacency and/or over-confidence. A fair bet Pep will be reminding the lads of this during his half-time address.
10 min: Brighton come at City again, Gilmour grooving in from the right and making enough space to curl a shot towards the bottom left. But there’s no pace in his effort and it’s an easy snaffle for Ortega.
9 min: Buonanotte slips Welbeck into the City box down the right. Foden slips, allowing Welbeck a sight at goal. He takes a shy but Foden’s back up immediately to block. Nothing comes of the resulting corner.
8 min: City stroke it around and their fans start with the olés early doors. Well, why not.
6 min: A huge chance for Haaland, and it really should have been the opener. Foden dribbles delicately down the inside-left channel before standing one up at the far stick for his big pal. Haaland crashes a header over the bar from six yards. Most unusual behaviour.
5 min: Walker crosses long from the right. Foden traps elegantly on the other flank before pinging into the middle for Haaland, who lines up a spectacular bicycle kick but can’t connect.
3 min: The resulting free kick is not worth waiting for.
2 min: Walker gets a bit over-eager in a chase with Mitoma and skittles the Brighton forward to the floor. Everyone lines up on the edge of the City box, awaiting the resulting free kick.
City kick off. The hosts in their blue and white stripes, the visitors in Milan-but-also-Hacienda-influenced red and black.
The teams are out. First things first: please accept your flustered MBM hack’s apologies for the complete and total lack of pre-match managerial chat; we’ve been having some connectivity issues tonight. Apologies in advance should any further technological fiascos befall us, but fingers crossed they won’t happen. Anyway, Brighton have welcomed City with a guard of honour. A friendly hug between Pep Guardiola and Roberto De Zerbi. We’ll be off in a minute.
Brighton make four changes to the team that started the 3-1 victory over Southampton. Danny Welbeck, Billy Gilmour, Facundo Buonanotte and Jan Paul van Hecke replace Joel Veltman, Lewis Dunk, Alexis Mac Allister and Evan Ferguson.
Manchester City meanwhile welcome back all the big guns, after giving them a rest for the Chelsea game. Stefan Ortega, Rico Lewis, Riyad Mahrez and Phil Foden are the only players to keep their places in the starting XI.
The teams
Brighton & Hove Albion: Steele, Caicedo, Van Hecke, Colwill, Estupinan, Gross, Gilmour, Buonanotte, Enciso, Mitoma, Welbeck.
Subs: McGill, Webster, Dunk, Mac Allister, Undav, Ayari, Ferguson, Veltman, Peupion.
Manchester City: Ortega, Walker, Stones, Lewis, Rodri, Gundogan, Mahrez, De Bruyne, Silva, Foden, Haaland.
Subs: Ederson, Phillips, Alvarez, Gomez, Charles, O’Reilly, Palmer, Robertson, Knight.
🔵 TEAM NEWS 🐝
XI | Ortega Moreno, Walker, Stones, Rodrigo, Lewis, Gundogan (C), De Bruyne, Bernardo, Mahrez, Foden, Haaland
SUBS | Ederson, Phillips, Alvarez, Gomez, Charles, O’Reilly, Palmer, Robertson, Knight#ManCity | @HaysWorldwide pic.twitter.com/OtVP1IhkyW
— Manchester City (@ManCity) May 24, 2023
Preamble
Let’s be honest with ourselves: there’s not a whole lot riding on this game. Manchester City are already champions, so their minds are almost certainly 99 percent fixated on their two upcoming finals, stages two and three of The Treble. And while it’s true that Brighton need one more point to categorically confirm their participation in next year’s Europa League, they’ve got such a superior goal difference over the only team that can still mathematically catch them, Aston Villa, that things would have to get seriously trippy for them to fail to hang onto sixth spot, even if they lose both of their remaining matches.
Then again, Brighton are still able to pip Liverpool for fifth, so there’s that. Meanwhile eagle-eyed observers may have spotted that Pep Guardiola has instilled a winning mentality at Manchester City, and momentum could prove priceless going into those aforementioned finals, so there’s that as well. Two fine footballing sides unencumbered by jeopardy but still with an eye on a greater prize: what’s not to love? Kick off at the Amex is at 8pm BST. It’s on!
