Manchester City defender Josko Gvardiol delivered a towering performance against Brighton & Hove Albion.
After getting beat against Wolves and Arsenal in their two Premier League games prior to the recent international break, the Citizens picked up all three points this afternoon by beating Brighton 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium.
The first half saw City go 2-0 up thanks to goals from Julian Alvarez and Erling Haaland. Much to Pep Guardiola’s presumed disappointment, the home side conceded a goal scored by Ansu Fati before seeing Manuel Akanji get sent off with a second yellow card.
With one City defender having a disappointing end to the game, another one of Guardiola’s centre-backs had a much better performance – Gvardiol.
Gvardiol impressed against Brighton
Completing the full 90 minutes, the 21-year-old had 94 touches of the ball in total, successfully delivering 66 of the 73 passes he attempted, leaving him with a passing accuracy percentage of 90%.
With one shot on target and successfully completing the one dribble he attempted, the Croatian managed to show how much of a solid defender he is.
Specifically, Gvardiol made four interceptions, two clearances and two tackles from the left-back position, in addition to winning all of the four ground duels he was involved in.
All of this showcases how much of a tough opponent he ended up being for Brighton’s attacking players.
This performance ultimately earned the defender an overall match rating of 7.4/10 from SofaScore, making him the joint third-highest-rated player on the day.
Taking all of that into account, we feel that Gvardiol was Guardiola’s unsung hero on this occasion as he managed to prove himself to be as important as the likes of Alvarez and Haaland.
Moving forward, if the Croatia international is able to keep delivering these sort of performances throughout the remainder of the season, he’ll undoubtedly be seen as one of City’s most important players of the campaign.
