Man Cityvs.Brighton

Manchester City expert Steven McInerney from Esteemed Kompany believes Pep Guardiola's side will need to score at least two goals if they wish to beat Brighton & Hove Albion in Saturday's Premier League contest at the Etihad Stadium.

With 10 games remaining, both the Citizens and the Seagulls are involved in a hotly-contested battle to secure Champions League football for next season and they both currently occupy a place in the top seven of the table.

Man City suffered their ninth Premier League defeat of the season last weekend as they were beaten 1-0 by third-placed Nottingham Forest at the City Ground, they and have subsequently slipped down to fifth.

Just one point and two places further back are seventh-placed Brighton, who came from behind to beat Fulham 2-1 at the Amex Stadium last weekend to claim their fourth successive league win and sixth victory in a row in all competitions since being thrashed 7-0 by Forest last month.

After beating Man City 2-1 in November's reverse fixture, Brighton are now looking to complete their first-ever league double over the Citizens in what is the 15th different campaign in which these two teams have butted heads.

'Brighton can take advantage of Man City's weaknesses'

Although McInnerny feels that Guardiola's side will have "the edge" playing at the Etihad in Saturday's important showdown, he believes that Brighton have the credentials to exploit City's weaknesses.

Speaking to Sports Mole, McInerney said: "City are different at home than they are away, so that gives us the edge there, but Brighton are arguably just as good as City right now. Even if we have a lot of quality, they are not a lesser side than Man City.

"City are a side sort of in transition, in terms of personnel - they're very much building for the future with the signings of [Omar] Marmoush, [Abdukodir] Khusanov and Nico Gonzalez, whereas Brighton sort of know who they are and they're in insane form.

"That Forest result was spectacular but... they are becoming incredibly hard to beat. They have such a conviction of how they play and they have players who would absolutely take advantage of Manchester City's weaknesses.

"You want pace out wide? They've got it in [Yankuba] Minteh and [Kaoru] Mitoma. You want physicality in midfield? [Carlos] Baleba will run for you all day. (They have) technical full-backs, [Pervis] Estupinan will get forward and provide all that energy. Joao Pedro is scoring goals as well. They're a side that can press aggressively and keep the ball really well.

"They are all of City's weaknesses right now. City aren't a hard side to play against these days. Brighton are just a brilliant side."

'Brighton will 100% score against Man City'

McInerney added: "Usually when City play possession-heavy sides at home, they do tend to keep the ball better. I don't know why. I would love to understand the logic of it. So I expect City will dictate the tempo against Brighton.

"Ultimately, it'll come down to quality, and I know that sounds really basic, but if Mitoma turns up for them and Savinho doesn't for City, that could be the difference if we don't get the ball to [Erling] Haaland.

"They will score. Brighton are absolutely going to score in this game, so we have to score a minimum two goals to get anything from this game, because Brighton 100% are going to score in this game."

Brighton have scored in 26 of their last 29 matches across all competitions, netting at least twice in their last four league games, while Man City have kept just six clean sheets in their last 30 fixtures since the end of October last year.

McInerney hopes that Man City will rectify the "mistakes" made in their defeat to Forest and believes that Brighton's 'random' capability of enduring a bad day at the office - as they did in the aforementioned 7-0 loss at Forest - offers the Citizens hope of prevailing on Saturday.

Can Man City rectify "mistakes" to beat Brighton?

"Brighton are a good side, but they're not a great side," said McInerney. "They are capable of randomly getting beat 7-0 by Forest, that comes down to a slight lack of quality at the very highest level.

"This is why they've not been a Champions League side. They are really good, but they aren't great and that does leave the door open for City to get something.

"We've had a week to hopefully fix the mistakes of the Forest game, which is a rarity for City as well - we just don't get time off anymore. I'm hoping there'll be some drills on the training ground, a little bit more creativity, look at the mistakes of being too slow against Forest and try and rectify them.

"I'm hoping we'll see the defensive work, though, that was so strong against Forest, carry on as it was really good for a large part of the game."

"It's going to be as close as it has been for an awful long time against Brighton," McInerney added. "At home in previous years, even when they've been good, we've got the better of them, but (on Saturday) I think it's going to be close."

McInerney has also discussed whether Guardiola will adopt a more direct approach - one that was successful in victories over Newcastle and Chelsea earlier this year - against a Brighton outfit known to play with a high defensive line.

In addition, McInerney has shared his thoughts on who could be named in Man City's starting lineup and "wouldn't be surprised" to see an out-of-form star benched on Saturday.

Press play on the video at the top of this article to hear the full discussion ahead of Man City's Premier League clash with Brighton.

Written by

Oliver Thomas