Brighton & Hove Albion vs Manchester City

Brighton & Hove Albion and Manchester City are set to exchange tackles at the Amex Stadium in a Premier League top-four six-pointer.

Despite producing a hat-trick of uneventful, low-scoring draws, Brighton trail Manchester City by just two points heading into this round, having enjoyed their best-ever start to a new Premier League campaign (W4, D3, L1). Yet, it’s worth noting that Brighton’s only top-flight defeat this season arrived at the Amex Stadium at the hands of Everton, which stands for one of their two Premier League home games in which they’ve failed to get on the scoresheet to date. Curiously, since earning Premier League promotion in 2017, the ‘Seagulls’ have registered more stalemates (53) and more goalless draws (19) than any other team in the competition. That said, none of Brighton’s eight historical Premier League meetings with Man City have ended level (W1, L7), with Graham Potters’ men coming out victorious in their most recent league showdown (3-2).

In the meantime, Manchester City utterly outclassed Club Brugge in the Champions League midweek, running out 5-1 winners in Belgium to build on a 2-0 home win over Burnley last time out. Defensively robust, Pep Guardiola’s men have conceded a league-joint low three goals this Premier League campaign. Notably, since succumbing to the abovementioned 3-2 defeat to Brighton, the ‘Citizens’ have registered a clean sheet in seven of their subsequent nine top-flight outings. Yet, Man City’s second-half defensive displays require some improvement, as each of their last seven Premier League goals conceded have come beyond half-time. After losing their most recent visit to the Amex, the current Premier League champions stare at the prospect of suffering back-to-back league defeats to Brighton for the first time in the club’s history (GP – W14, D4, L4).