Brighton fought back to gain an emphatic victory against the Champions Manchester City, despite them being in poor form I believe that the focus should be on how the Albion managed to gain all 3 points on Saturday.
The first half wasn’t quite up to scratch for Brighton, it felt like a close affair but with Man City still comfortable, there was a lack of chances for the Albion and as they progressed forward, the attempt often came to nothing due to a wrong decision or inaccurate pass going into the final third. Man city carried the threat on the wing and showed some quality but it felt like Albion were well in the game.
In the second half Hurzeler brought on star man Carlos Baleba, he was able to boss the midfield with his relentless work rate, strength and power as well as his excellence on the ball. The Seagull’s also shifted the midfield, implementing two eights instead of giving City too much respect which you could claim they were doing in the first half, this tactical switch therefore allowed the Albion to take the game to City.
Shortly after Jack Hinslewood picked up an injury and despite his solid display, it gave the opportunity for Matt O’Riley to make his Premier League debut. He filled some really excellent spaces and was able to show his quality within his camino. Joao Pedro also made his return and it really was a game where the substitutes made all the difference.
One of Pedro’s strengths is enabling posing a real threat to opposition, Mitoma- who has to be mentioned for working tirelessly throughout the game, Pedro’s assistance to the widemen helped to break down City’s defence by creating a 2 on 1 scenarios and this soon played off.
Van Hecke played a pin point pass out wide to Mitoma, who crossed it into the box- it then fell to Welbeck who couldn’t make anything of the chance and got stuck, three City defenders surrounded the ball and the chance looked to be gone. However, within the scramble Joao Pedro managed to unlock the City defence, his clinical nature was portrayed as he scooped the ball out the crowd and tucked it away to put the Albion level.
Despite this equaliser being fairly late on in the match, I think all fans sensed there may be something more to come. The atmosphere was incredible even at 1-0 down Albion fans really got behind their team, which usually fans struggle to generate consistent noise within the Amex, but it was truly special on Saturday.
Brighton continued to pressure City and quickly after the equaliser the momentum continued: when Baleba spotted a pass through the middle of the park, threaded into Pedro who had great awareness to play the perfect ball to O’Riley who had made an excellent run and took his chance so well. Considering the circumstances of how his Albion career started (forced to get surgery after a filthy tackle against Crawley within the opening minutes), to show this composure was really impressive, using his instinctive touch and finish to win the game. Pure ecstasy from the Brighton fans and the Albion deservedly took the lead after periods of built up pressure.
Matt O’Riley discussed on the Official Brighton and Hove Albion Podcast about using mediation and certain methods to focus on the moment, to enhance his game and personal life, which I thought was very interesting and mature. I’m sure Albion fans will continue to see the rewards of this focus, alongside his brilliant footballing ability.
I also wanted to shout out Igor who has stepped up to a really high level which I thought is really impressive. Considering he’s up against arguably the best striker in the world and replacing Albion’s reliable captain he has handled the situation immensely well and put in another solid defensive display on the weekend.
More on Carlos Baleba because he is simply insane. His quality shines through whenever he’s on the pitch, he is great at winning the ball and progressing it into forward areas with intricate dribbling and passing, which has really developed this season. He also has the confidence and ability to produce a good strike when it falls to him usually on the edge of the box. The impact he made in this game was immense, a moment that sticks out to me is when he sheltered the ball from Haaland showing his brute strength. Following this moment, straight away he provided an excellent turn and looked to go forward- showing his mentality of always trying to create opportunities whilst anchoring and settling the rest of the team. As his match consistently builds up (as when Brighton bought him from Lille he lacked a lot of minutes) the potential he can reach is elite level and I’m extremely excited to see how his season pans out.
Hurzeler will now experience the headache of trying to navigate having a fully fit frontline. With Pedro, Welbeck, Geogrinio and Ferguson all fit the amount of quality and depth Brighton have in forward positions is incredible and the benefit of this strength on the bench, is always knowing you have presences who can all change the game and all have different attributes to contribute to the upcoming run of fixtures.
Within this, Albion play some close competitors away from home-(Bournemouth and Fulham) as well as at home playing teams that are struggling and therefore maybe are considered games the Albion should expect to win-(Southampton and Palace) despite one being a rival game. However, it’s never that simple and hardly ever pans out according to the level of opposition, each game always is a different challenge. So it will be interesting to witness how Albion approach these games as they have shown different characteristics within matches, for example, the contrast of Newcastle and Liverpool performances. Let’s see what amount of points the Seagull’s can accumulate over the next coming weeks, as there is the possibility for there to be a lot of movement due to the tight nature of the Premier League table this season.
