City Watch: City stunned on the South Coast

Manchester faced Brighton and Hove Albion at the weekend following their disappointing result against Tottenham the week before, and it’s fair to say that Pep and his players would’ve been hoping for a good result heading into the first international break of the season.

Last season, the same fixture was during the run where the Blues only managed a single victory in thirteen games across all competitions, going in front initially and losing the game 2-1. 

Unfortunately, this season’s fixture had a similar result.

The Seagulls headed into the game seeking their first win of the season, having only managed a draw the Fulham and a loss to Everton so far. 

The first half went exactly as expected, City dominated the ball and had some solid chances. 

Oscar Bobb seemed to be having some success down the right flank, but a bit like most of our wide attacking players, there wasn’t much end product 

Chances came and went, but eventually, Erling Haaland put the Blues 1-0 up after Omar Marmoush prodded the ball through the Brighton defence. 

After going in at the break 1-0 up, City continued to dominate the second half, but for the last half an hour, Brighton found their way back into the game.

In the 65th minute, the Blues gave away a penalty with Matheus Nunes the culprit. He was deemed to have handled the ball following a cross that had come in. 

If you’ve seen the decision, I could understand why the referee gave the penalty, but honestly, I fear it may have been a little harsh. 

Nunes did have his arm in an unnatural position, but in my opinion, he was too close to have time to react.

Either way, substitute and ex-Liverpool players, James Milner slotted the ball past James Trafford to level up the game. 

It was end to end after this, with both teams having good chances to grab the win. 

Fatefully for City, though, another substitute, Brajan Gruda, dummied his way past Trafford in the 89th minute to give the south coast side a 2-1 win, mirroring our result at the Amex from last season.

Two defeats in three Premier League games won’t be the start Pep wanted, and definitely isn’t the start I anticipated following the demolition of Wolves at the start of the season. 

It feels a bit like the Spurs game, City didn’t play that badly, we were just unable to put the game away at 1-0 and that’s what cost us, which may be an issue that continues over the season.

I will talk about one positive that I took from the game, which was the performance of James Trafford. 

The England international had a torrid start against Spurs last weekend, however, he was trusted with the start, and despite the result, I thought he was immense. 

He made multiple world class saves, pegging back Brighton and giving his team mates the opportunity to bury the game at 1-0.

It comes as a surprise, then, that City confirmed the signing of Gianluigi Donnarumma from PSG on deadline day for 35 million. 

I’ve said all along that the Italian is a fantastic shot stopper, probably one of the best in the world, however, I’m unsure of his abilities with his feet, something Joe Hart knew ended his time at the Blues way back at the start of Pep’s tenure.

I just don’t understand the signing at all, and I have sympathy for Trafford. 

An area where City clearly needed backup was in the right back position, so I’m not sure why we didn’t use the Donnarumma spending to bring a right sided full back in, as the pairing of Rico Lewis and Nunes doesn’t fill me with confidence.

Regardless, there were also some emotional goodbyes on deadline day. 

Three of the treble winning squad said their goodbyes to Manchester. 

The first, and no surprise with the arrival of Donnarumma, was Ederson to Turkish side, Fenerbahce. 

The Brazilian goalkeeper didn’t just change the way City played, he changed the way football could be thought about in this country. 

More and more teams have used their goalkeeper to play out from the back since Ederson’s arrival, so he will leave a huge legacy behind.

Ilkay Gundogan and Manuel Akanji also confirmed their moves to Galatasaray and Inter Milan respectively. 

City and it’s fans owes those three players a great deal, as for any player that was involved in the infamous Treble winning season, so I’d like to thank them all for those fantastic memories.

After the international break, we’re back at the Etihad Stadium, where Pep will be preparing to take on Manchester United, and with only one win from three so far for the Blues, this surely should be a good one!