A game condensed into 15 seconds. Jeremy Doku loses possession on the touchline but won’t have that, thundering into a tackle to recollect and then sets off beating two men. He seems in the mood for destruction.
An expectant Etihad is up, the Premier League‘s trickiest winger cutting loose and Manchester City are in. One calm final ball and an equaliser is on.
Doku tries to find a lurking Erling Haaland, or at least it appears so, because the pass is so bad that Brighton are already storming upfield themselves.
Around 15 minutes after that, Fabian Hurzeler is roaring at his bench. He is chest bumping substitutes and backroom staff with defiant pride, vindication of the words spoken about seeking revenge in the immediately aftermath of losing on penalties here in the cup a matter of days ago.
Brighton stayed in Manchester after Wednesday night and Hurzeler spent that time plotting, organising the battle plan to topple league leaders who have been fallible defensively under Enzo Maresca this season but are producing scintillating attacking moments.
Hurzeler leaves the north west following a little getaway at the Lowry Hotel having drawn and won against City over the course of two 90 minutes. His stock is soaring, his side a fascination and the faint chorus of ‘we’re gonna win the league’ from the away end might just grow a little louder over the coming weeks if they can keep this up.
Manchester City were turned over by Brighton to make it back-to-back league defeats
Yasin Ayari’s first half goal was all that was required for Brighton to leave as the victors
Brighton’s manager peeled away from the group as they enjoyed being serenaded by the away end, instead sharing a moment with match winner Yasin Ayari, whose third goal of the campaign owed much to the quick thinking of Lewis Dunk to restart play from a dead ball with haste and the individual mistake of Matheus Nunes, failing to clear Diego Gomez’s cross. Ayari and Dunk were those to miss from the spot in the Carabao Cup.
‘Wednesday was brutal,’ Hurzeler said. ‘We promised ourselves that we won’t have the same feeling.
‘We created energy, positivity. How the players stuck together and built the connection through the four days is really impressive.’
Hurzeler discussed the virtue of luck here in midweek and City’s was out on the day, now only two points between the teams after consecutive league defeats.
The joyous, and somewhat knowing, celebrations between staff members shone a light on the preparation that went into this result and how it quite clearly serves as a warning shot.
Brighton showed across four days that they have the depth, quality and wherewithal to be at least be considered strong enough to stay close with City and Arsenal. More specifically, they showed on Saturday that they can mix the way in which they play, adept to altering circumstances.
Their full throttle movement in midfield before half time confused their City counterparts, the home midfield discombobulated – arms pointing frantically, basic organisational shouts becoming more hurried – and that filtered through to other areas of the pitch.
Maresca was seem directing Elliot Anderson on who to follow and there were occasionally some befuddled looks.
Gianluigi Donnarumma was full stretch but could do nothing about Ayari’s pinpoint strike
Enzo Maresca was in disbelief as his side spurned numerous opportunities to score a goal
Out of possession, home wingers were often full backs and full backs were often stationed as wingers as they followed their men, with Brighton happily piercing through any gaps. For a while, City were taken for a ride on the waltzers.
And then later on, when City pushed and pushed, Brighton went to a back six and contained.
They still gave up a number of very presentable chances, City failing to convert five of those – most notably two for Iliman Ndiaye and Nico O’Reilly’s late header – but the rearguard action is proof that they own the minerals to enjoy more days like these before May is done.
‘SILLY’ CITY
Brighton managed to create four big chances from just nine touches inside the City box, indicating that once Maresca’s midfield is breached then they are too easy to play through.
The Italian – who dropped Marc Guehi – is concerned by the volume of individual mistakes at both ends of the pitch after the Nunes error.
‘We’re probably conceding [too many] silly goals,’ Maresca said, with the defeat at Aston Villa also pockmarked by them.
‘We created enough but unfortunately didn’t score. For sure we are not happy. Nobody is happy when we lose. But we were aware that we weren’t going to win all the games.’
Maresca said he had not reviewed two penalty appeals for handball and the decision to award a free kick in the build up to Brighton’s 11th-minute goal.
Brighton showed enough quality this week to suggest they can hang with Arsenal and Man City
ANGLES OF ATTACK
Left back Josko Gvardiol was largely tucking in to become a third centre half and Nunes told to occupy the sort of attacking positions that the Croatian usually devours.
And interestingly, were City to win their appeal against the guilty verdicts – the sanctions for which would likely spell relegation – then left back is an area they would be expected to look at.
Sources have indicated that Bournemouth’s Adrien Truffert is one potential target who was scouted extensively last season before City decided against bolstering their ranks in that area in the summer.
Rayan Ait-Nouri is looking to leave, while any signings in that position would present intrigue as to how Gvardiol and O’Reilly are used in future.
