Battling Brighton are made to pay as City punish errors
IT ENDED as you anticipated. The team that had spent £216million in the summer, whose squad is worth £569m and which is effectively the public relations arm of an energyrich 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 tier and whose players were worth a combined total of £37m.
Brighton have teetered on the brink of existence, had sold their own ground and had 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, 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 errors. And the billionaires pounced.
They can take heart. They showed enough to suggest they can compete.
‘For 70 minutes, I thought we were good,’ said Brighton boss Chris Hughton. ‘There’s only one way a team like ourselves can play against them — and that’s to keep it tight and frustrate them. The one time we got stretched, they capitalised on it.’
There were some significant moments to celebrate for Brighton, 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 on 33 minutes.
Or Jamie Murphy charging through on goal on 42 minutes, even if the Scot’s effort 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 Kevin de Bruyne, Aguero, Silva and Jesus the favoured four, meaning Raheem Sterling, Bernardo Silva and Leroy Sane had to make do with a place 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 hand with which it was guided in and disallowed the goal.
Despite the resilience of the Brighton backline — and Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy stood out — the second half brought a growing sense that money would win the day.
Without 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 and the goal was ruled out.
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, Duffy’s shot deflecting over from the first and Davy Propper firing wide from the second.
Yet City would have their breakthrough. Having played so well for so long, Dale Stephens was the man who dithered for a second. In nipped de Bruyne, robbing him of the ball, sprinting forward to find Silva, who fed Aguero, who finished clinically.
Five minutes later, it was 2-0. 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 headed into his own goal by Dunk.
City captain Vincent Kompany said afterwards: ‘We had to be patient, we could see they had a clear game plan.
‘But we’ve got quality throughout the team and eventually it made all the difference.’