Key events
Teams in full
Brighton (probable 4-2-3-1) Verbruggen; Veltman, Van Hecke, Dunk, De Cuyper; Baleba, Hinshelwood; Minteh, Gomez, Mitoma; Welbeck.
Subs: Steele, Coppola, Boscagli, Kadioglu, Gruda, Milner, Ayari, O’Riley, Rutter.
Manchester City (possible 4-1-4-1) Trafford; Nunes, Stones, Khusanov, Ait-Nouri; Rodri; Silva, Bobb, Reijnders, Marmoush; Haaland.
Subs: Ederson, Lewis, Akanji, Dias, Ake, Gonzalez, Gundogan, O’Reilly, Doku.
Referee Darren England. VAR Paul Tierney.
Teams in brief: Rodri starts, Trafford retained
Rodri, who came on as a sub last weekend, makes his first start for nearly a year. That will be music to the ears of City fans, or anyone who admires a bit of midfield mastery.
Pep Guardiola makes three more changes from the XI beaten by Spurs, bringing in Matheus Nunes and Abdukodir Khusanov at the back, plus the captain, Bernardo Silva, in midfield. Rico Lewis and Ruben Dias drop to the bench, while Rayan Cherki is injured. In goal, the story is there isn’t a change: James Trafford retains Pep’s faith after his jitters against Spurs, so Ederson has to bide his time on the bench.
For Brighton, Fabian Hürzeler makes three changes from the XI that lost to Everton. Joel Veltman replaces Mats Wieffer at right-back, and there are two changes in midfield, with Jack Hinshelwood and Diego Gomez coming in for Yasin Ayari and Matt O’Riley.
Preamble
Afternoon everyone and welcome to what should be an intriguing battle. Two visionary managers, two elegant styles of play, two teams in transition … and only one good result apiece this season.
Man City walloped Wolves, only to lose at home to Spurs. Brighton let two points slip late on at home to Fulham, then lost at Everton’s shiny new stadium, and needed a visit to Oxford in the League Cup to find some form (and six goals). This is technically a bottom-half-of-the-table clash, with City 11th and Brighton 18th – but either can take the escalator to their usual level today. A win by two goals will put City in the top four, if only for a couple of hours, while a win of any kind will lift Brighton to 10th.
Pep Guardiola used to like to be beside the seaside, but last November he went to Bournemouth and Brighton on successive Saturdays and left City’s aura on the beach. After going 2-1 down at the Vitality Stadium, they led at the Amex for nearly an hour before Joao Pedro and Matt O’Riley put them into their misery.
City’s galling season had a strange quirk to it. They were invincible in British Summer Time (P18 W14 D4), but mediocre from November to March (P20 W7 D4 L9). This year it’s still Summer Time and already the living is uneasy. After seeing Thomas Frank expose City’s inexperience last weekend, Fabian Hürzeler will surely fancy this. He has yet to lose to Pep: the game at the Etihad, just before the clocks went forward, finished 2-2.
Kick-off is at 2pm (BST, obviously) and I’ll be back soon with the teams.
