Man City vs Brighton

Manchester City host Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday as Pep Guardiola's side aim to bounce back from their first defeat of the season.

Chelsea have gone to a back 4 with the trio of Kovacic, Jorginho and Loftus-Cheek in midfield. Chelsea head to RB Salzburg on Tuesday in the UEFA Champions League and then head to Brighton on Saturday, Oct. As for Manchester United, yet another Cristiano Ronaldo saga has dominated the last few days as he walked off early against Tottenham after being an unused sub and will not be in the squad to face Chelsea. The ball just hasn’t dropped to Raheem Sterling in the right areas on a few occasions. Casemiro and Eriksen class gives United sturdy foundation: The experienced duo of Eriksen and Casemiro got United off to a fine start as they ticked things over nicely in midfield and gave United a foundation to get something from the game. Manchester United host Sheriff Tiraspol in the Europa League on Thursday and then host West Ham on Sunday, Oct. Rashford, Aubameyang struggle: The forwards on both teams struggled to have an impact and perhaps both Chelsea and Manchester United will be better without a true No. United and Chelsea both tried to leave as many forward players forward as possible and it turned the game into a bit of a stalemate. United dominated midfield early on and got the ball to Sancho, Bruno Fernandes and Antony often and Chelsea couldn’t get going. Potter’s decision to bring on Kovacic after 35 minutes gave Chelsea the control they wanted as they switched to a back four and went to a 4-2-3-1. Phil Foden is also in superb form in attack and Kevin de Bruyne continues to pull all the strings and Rodri is a machine in midfield. The sides posted virtually identical numbers across the board, as they gave Guardiola and Co., a small taste of their own medicine (only without the same success in front of goal).

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"I think in the first half, we could play with more energy, with more confidence, with more personality. I believe if we play the same way, same style, we will win a lot of games." "In the first half, Trossard could have played better because I think he's a very good player and I expect always more from him. A brilliant afternoon for Man City captain De Bruyne - and all with a black eye picked up in training. With the ball, they are really good but in the first half, they played with a high press and intensity and we were playing on their terms. I have to analyse only my work and that is to understand if the players play well or not. We took only two points and this is sad for us, but we have to work, to improve. "We played one of the most important team in the Premier League, but the lessons are the same. We suffered, but the quality from Kevin made the difference. VAR did check the goal for a foul, but Haaland was simply too strong for the Brighton defender. Silva fizzed the ball along the top of the area for the midfielder, who was offered far too much space to fire home a sumptuous effort. He was caught by Joel Veltman down the left of the area, sending the winger rolling off the field, clutching his ankle.

The freewheeling fun of Manchester City's Erling Haaland era ground to a halt at Anfield. The big Norway superstar made sure to bring back the good times ...

Those are kinks that it will be intriguing to see the most decorated tactician of his generation iron out and he’ll undoubtedly have taken a thing or two from this absorbing joust with De Zerbi. Leandro Trossard spanked home a 20-yarder that was too hot for Ederson to handle and the Brazil goalkeeper saved impressively after a barnstorming run from the Brighton goalscorer in the 73rd minute. Now, as was the case on Saturday, they can be outplayed and out-thought for periods but blast their way out of trouble. It was definitely funny and things started to feel like fun again after a sapping week on the blue side of Manchester. In one glorious passage of play, Riyad Mahrez nutmegged Adam Lallana to get City moving down the right. Haaland slotted home and VAR upheld the goal, probably to teach Webster and children watching everywhere that standing in front of an articulated lorry when it’s thundering downhill is a terrible idea.