Brighton & Hove Albion vs Manchester City

A tasty-looking midweek Premier League clash pits Brighton & Hove Albion and Manchester City against each other at the Amex Stadium.

Inspired by Evan Ferguson’s double, Brighton sealed a 3-1 home win over southern rivals Southampton at the weekend to cement a first-ever European qualification with two games to spare. One point in the last two rounds will suffice to catapult the ‘Seagulls’ into next season’s Europa League, yet a patchy five-game league form (W3, L2) suggests they’ll likely have to wait until the final weekend. Adding to this sentiment, Roberto De Zerbi’s men have suffered ten defeats in their 11 previous Premier League meetings with Man City (W1), losing the last three on the bounce via multi-goal margins. Furthermore, Brighton have emerged victorious in just one of their seven top-flight encounters against sides starting the round at the top of the table (L6). But if you’re a fan of omens, that solitary success came at the expense of non-other than City.

Even before Pep Guardiola’s second-string line-up edged out a downtrodden Chelsea side 1-0 last weekend, Man City had a third consecutive Premier League title in the bag, courtesy of Arsenal’s defeat at Nottingham Forest. But it takes nothing away from the visitors’ inexorable march toward a fifth league title in six years, as they’ve won 12 successive top-flight fixtures to get there. Playing on Wednesday (European time) invokes happy memories, considering the ‘Citizens’ have won their last 25 Premier League outings on this day by an outrageous aggregate scoreline of 68-11. Adding to their impressive scoring tally in Wednesday’s’ Premier League fixtures looks like a near-certainty here, with Man City averaging a whopping three goals per game in their 11 top-flight meetings with Brighton.