A reality check as Dunk takes the biscuit
Brighton breezy but Aguero and shocking own goal takes the wind out of sails
IT ENDED as you anticipated. The team that had spent £216million over the summer, whose squad was worth £569m and which is effectively the public relations arm of an energy-rich Arab state finally found a way past the club that almost dropped off the Football League radar 20 years ago, had spent 34 years painfully finding their way back to the top flight and whose squad was worth £37m.
Brighton have teetered on the brink of extinction, threatened to go out of the league and out of business, sold their own ground, been homeless before building a new one.
So this was a momentous day and they deserved to enjoy it. And yet the carnival is over for Brighton. Well though they played — and they were excellent for long periods and even threatened City at times — they were undone by the familiar woes of newly-promoted sides. They competed, they battled and they held their own. Yet ultimately, as they tired, they made but two mistakes. And the billionaires pounced.
Such is the way of the Premier League. They can take heart. They showed enough to suggest they can compete.
As for City, they did enough to justify, for now, their status as title favourites. There was just the one flap for the new goalkeeper; defensively they were relatively untested yet solid; going forward, they have yet to go through the gears but did enough.
And Kevin De Bruyne, despite the general rustiness around him, was outstanding.
The sun shone, the 32,000-seater stadium looked magnificent nestling as it does among the South Downs hills and the trains to the village of Falmer were heaving with fans in regulation summer short-sleeved replica kits. It was quite a day in Brighton.
For anyone who had peered through the hammer circle netting from the away end at the Withdean Stadium to watch Brighton in the wilderness years, or those fans who had to schlepp to Gillingham when the old Goldstone Ground was sold to stave off liquidation, or for those who were there 20 years ago when Robbie Reinelt’s late goal prevented Albion falling out of the Football League, it was all barely conceivable. Manchester City were in town. Not the old Manchester City that Brighton fans remember from 1983, when they were last in the top flight.
This Manchester City fielded a bench with £210million worth of talent and needed new full-backs in the summer so spent £125m.
Brighton also needed new fullbacks and spent £6.3m.
But it wasn’t really the time to focus on the gulf yet to be bridged but rather just glory in the fact that after 34 years and seemingly endless near-misses in the play-offs, Brighton were finally back. And celebrate the significant moments, such as on 24 minutes when Solly March skipped past Gabriel Jesus and David Silva, leaving them flailing as he dribbled out of defence.
Or debutant Mat Ryan parrying away a Jesus header set up by Sergio Aguero on 33 minutes.
Or Jamie Murphy charging through on goal on 42 minutes, even if it ended up rather harmlessly in the hands of Ederson.
That Brighton conceded possession, sat in their own half for much of the opening exchanges mattered little. They held their own.
City struggled to get into their rhythm, despite their attacking talent with De Bruyne, Aguero, Silva and Jesus the favoured four, meaning Raheem Sterling, Bernardo and Leroy Sane had to make do with places on the bench.
City thought they had made a breakthrough on 26 minutes, De Bruyne playing one of those sublime passes to which he is accustomed which rendered Brighton’s flat lines of defences useless, as Jesus sprinted on to chest down and finish.
However, referee Michael Oliver spotted the sly hand with which it was guided in and disallowed the goal.
Despite the prolonged resilience of the Brighton hordes — and Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy stood out as the last line of defence — the second half initially brought that uneasy, growing sense that money would win the day.
Without really getting out of third gear, City began to create enough chances to suggest a goal wasn’t too far away. Brighton escaped on 51 minutes when a delightful combination saw De Bruyne, by far the best player on the pitch, lift the ball to Silva, who cut it back for Jesus to touch it in.
However, Aguero was adjudged offside, presumably looking to take advantage despite not being involved.
A minute later a rare mistake by Duffy let in Aguero but he skewed his shot wide. Yet then came a
flurry of fresh hope with a succession of Brighton corners.
From the first, in the 56th minute, new boy Davy Propper rather fluffed his half volley but it was headed into the path of Duffy, who lashed at the ball, only to see it deflected just wide. The stadium roared with real belief.
From the resulting corner there was a familiar scene: an expensive City goalkeeper from South Amercia flapping at the ball.
Dunk almost took advantage, having two swipes at the ball, both of which were blocked before City cleared but only to Propper, who struck just wide from outside the box. But Brighton needed the generosity of referee Oliver to get them through difficult moments.
When De Bruyne struck in the 65th minute, Dunk, unbalanced and leaning backwards, thrust out an arm and saw the ball strike it and deflect wide for a corner.
Mr Oliver must have adjudged it accidental and unavoidable not to award the penalty; it seemed a benign interpretation.
Yet City would have their breakthrough. The incessant intensity of the Premier League is what does for many promoted teams.
And having played so well for so long, Dale Stephens was the man who dithered for a second as he considered an option. In nipped De Bruyne, robbing him of the ball, sprinting forward to find Silva, who, first time, fed Aguero. This time the Argentine didn’t fail, striking home cleanly.
And having made the first breach of the defence, the next took just four minutes.
Aguero, darting one way, then the next, was uncontainable as the ball was fed out to Fernandinho on the right wing and his cross was aimed at Jesus but was somehow headed into his own goal by Dunk.
Dunk was another who had excelled for long periods yet was eventually forced into a mistake.