CITY ARE SO GOOD THEY’VE DRAINED RIVALS’ AMBITION
AS Manchester City’s horizons get ever broader, everybody else’s continue to shrink. At Wembley on Saturday evening Chris Hughton, the Brighton manager, reflected on defeat and the end of an FA Cup journey gently derailed one stop short of the final.
‘The level we reached today is something we need to take into our remaining games of the season,’ said Hughton. ‘To run such a brilliant team close takes an incredible effort. For our level, I thought it was a really good game.’
Hughton is entitled to feel satisfied with Brighton’s efforts if he so wishes. They were a goal down after four minutes, and things could have gone ugly very early.
However, to think this was a close game is wrong. It certainly was not a very exciting or watchable game. City were not at their best, far from it. They will save that for tomorrow night’s Champions League game at Tottenham.
But they were still far too good for a Brighton team high on organisation and endeavour but low on real attacking quality and, it must be said, belief.
And this is the point. Of all the remarkable things City have done under Pep Guardiola, perhaps the most telling is the way their months of imperious excellence have drained the ambition out of all but one or two of the teams in England.
Teams like Brighton no longer travel with any kind of real confidence when they meet City. They play to survive and hope something goes for them. If it doesn’t, at least they can emerge with dignity intact ahead of other, more attainable, challenges.
This happens all the time in the Premier League, where goal difference matters. Now we have seen it happen in an FA Cup semi-final, where it does not. It is strange, it is disappointing and it means that days like this become an exercise in inevitability. It is sport, but not as we once knew it.
‘If you make it an open attacking game against City there is only one winner,’ said Hughton. ‘If you are compact and play on the break, as we did, anything can happen.
‘We are not the only ones. Everybody outside the top six has to approach this Manchester City team this way. To try to score two or three against City means they will score four or five.’
Certainly that would have been more entertaining for those of us who had hoped for an upset. In these pages on Saturday, I suggested a Brighton win would have been good for the FA Cup. As it turned out, it never looked remotely possible.
Almost three decades ago this weekend, Crystal Palace threw everything they had at a gifted Liverpool side in the 1990 FA Cup semi-final and won 4-3. Here, at a largely subdued Wembley, such a spectacle was never on the cards.
City’s early goal was lovely, both in creation by Kevin De Bruyne and execution by Gabriel Jesus. De Bruyne would appear to be finding form at the right time for City, even if overall here he was eclipsed by team-mate Bernardo Silva.
Had Kyle Walker been sent off for tangling with Alireza Jahanbakhsh just before half-time, Brighton might have prospered. As it was, the yellow card he received felt just about right. Brighton were slightly more progressive in the second half and looked vaguely dangerous from set pieces. From one, City central defender Aymeric Laporte had to hack clear from the goal line, but that was the sum total of Brighton’s threat.
As one City supporter said on social media, it felt as straightforward as playing Brighton at home in the league.
The empty spaces in the City sections were regrettable but their supporters cannot be blamed. The FA continue to butcher their own competition with Wembley semifinals and stupid kick-off times and this, sadly, is the fall-out from that.
Guardiola’s team were far from fluent, but they had no need to be. They have the look of a racehorse idling with a circuit left to run and it will be a surprise if they are not slipped from the bridle before long.
As for Brighton, it was hard to see what there was to feel so satisfied about. Unless we really have reached a point where to lose narrowly to Manchester City is to claim a moral win.
MANCHESTER CITY (4-2-3-1): Ederson 7; Walker 5.5 (Danilo 46min, 6), Otamendi 6, Laporte 7, Mendy 6 (Stones 79); De Bruyne 6.5 (Fernandinho 65, 6), Gundogan 6.5; BERNARDO 7.5, D Silva 6.5, Sterling 7; Jesus 6.5. Subs not used: Muric, Sane, Mahrez, Foden. Booked: Walker, Danilo. Manager: Pep Guardiola 6.5. BRIGHTON (4-5-1): Ryan 6; Montoya 6, Duffy 6.5, Dunk 6.5, Bernardo 6; Knockaert 6.5, Propper 6, Stephens 6, Bissouma 6 (Locadia 82), Jahanbakhsh 6 (Izquierdo 70, 6); Murray 6 (Andone 66, 6). Subs not used: Button, Bruno, Bong, Burn. Booked: Jahanbakhsh, Dunk. Manager: Chris Hughton 6. Referee: Anthony Taylor 6.5. Attendance: 71,521.