Manchester City put four past Brighton and Hove Albion on Thursday night, as the champions moved up to second in the table, one point below Arsenal with a game in hand.
HAALAND “FEELS BETTER”
Erling Haaland (£14.2m) missed Thursday’s trip to Brighton through injury.
In his absence, the champions racked up four goals, but Pep Guardiola was clear in his post-match presser that he’d much rather have the Norwegian involved.
“I prefer to have Erling at my disposal than not to have it. I spoke with him, he says he feels better, I don’t know.” – Pep Guardiola on Erling Haaland
Shorn of his leading goalscorer, Guardiola used Phil Foden (£8.2m) and Kevin De Bruyne (£10.4m) in central roles at the Amex, with Julian Alvarez (£6.4m) often drifting into wide areas to create space.
Explaining the tactic, Guardiola and De Bruyne said:
“The way they defend, we decided to play that way without wingers, more full-backs. They did really well. We found them with the process for Bernardo. They did exceptional and that provoked the spaces for them.” – Pep Guardiola
“Now, Phil gets trusted to play centrally. Even today we didn’t play with any wingers, so we both played a little centrally and had to go on the wings sometimes.” – Kevin De Bruyne on Phil Foden
It certainly worked. Alvarez racked up a match-high six shots and ended his goal drought, scoring once, but it was undoubtedly Foden and De Bruyne who ran the show.
FANTASTIC FODEN
Foden is in the form of his life, having produced double-figure hauls in four of his last six appearances.
Admittedly, his first goal was lucky: the free-kick shouldn’t have been given in the first place and his resulting effort hit the back of Pascal Gross (£6.2m) before flying in.
However, it was a brilliant overall display, which has no doubt cemented Foden’s place in many a Wildcard squad.
As for De Bruyne, he also played with a real swagger and opened the scoring with a beautiful diving header. Eight of the Belgian’s 10 goal involvements this season have now come in away matches, with three of City’s next four league fixtures on the road.
Foden and De Bruyne were replaced by Jack Grealish (£7.2m) and Matheus Nunes (£4.7m) on 71 minutes, presumably with one eye on Sunday’s trip to Nottingham.
“His influence in the final third was better than the last two or three games. Today was more calm. The decision-making was good and to score goals is always good.” Pep Guardiola on Phil Foden
“I have always said that I see myself centrally. This year I have moved inside and it has helped me massively. I enjoy it in the middle. It’s where I want to be. At the moment, I am just enjoying my football and playing with freedom.” – Phil Foden
WALKER ADVANCED
Kyle Walker (£5.3m) provided two assists at the Amex, helping him rack up 14 points, his best return of the season so far.
City didn’t play with proper wingers on Thursday and the England full-back was one of the main beneficiaries, with Bernardo Silva’s (£6.2m) roaming role creating space for him to exploit.
Guardiola referenced Nottingham Forest’s speed in his post-match presser, so you’d expect Walker to feature again on Sunday to help deal with that threat.
Ruben Dias (£5.5m) and John Stones (£5.3m) were both benched in Brighton, meanwhile, with Guardiola opting for Walker, Manuel Akanji (£5.0m), Nathan Ake (£5.0m) and Josko Gvardiol (£4.9m) at the back.
Above: Kyle Walker’s touch heatmap v Brighton
BRIGHTON ERRORS/DE ZERBI ON BARCO
Brighton’s tactic of playing out from the back has won plenty of plaudits but it caused problems here, with City able to capitalise.
Albion looked pretty decent early on, limiting the visitors with an aggressive press, but they have now made 10 errors leading directly to a goal this season, more than any other side in the Premier League.
“Yes, sometimes we took the advantage [with playing this way]. For sure if you make mistakes you can concede goals. You have to analyse how many goals we score and points we made playing the ball, then the advantages [outweigh] what we concede.” – Roberto De Zerbi on playing out from the back
They are having trouble scoring, too.
Since beating Sheffield United 5-0 in Gameweek 25, Brighton have scored just four goals in eight Premier League games.
Meanwhile, with Pervis Estupinan (£4.8m) out for the rest of the season due to a calf problem, youngster Valentin Barco (£4.0m) slotted in at left-back on Thursday.
At times he looked shaky, but he did take three of Albion’s four corners and also pushed up into a more advanced role following Igor Julio’s (£4.3m) introduction.
Elsewhere, Bart Verbruggen’s (£4.4m) run of five starts in a row came to an end, with Jason Steele (£4.1m) preferred in goal.
“We played against one of the best teams in the world, we tried to play with our DNA, with our character, respecting our qualities. We conceded all the goals in a bad way.
“We made mistakes but we have to accept the mistakes because, for Valentin Barco, it was the first game in the Premier League. He was the best player on the pitch for us but he made mistakes on the third and fourth goals.
“Carlos Baleba suffered too much in the game, the competition, but we are working for the future of the club. We have a lot of young players and we have to accept it.” – Roberto De Zerbi
12 days, 23 hours agoPep's comments on Haaland feel oddly reminiscent of those he made for a number of weeks when he eventually ended up being out for nearly 2 months