Pundit Paul Merson has shared his prediction for Manchester City’s upcoming Premier League match against Brighton & Hove Albion.
After losing their two previous Premier League games prior to the recent international break, the Manchester club are back in action with a home clash against Roberto De Zerbi’s side.
Looking ahead to this match, one pundit has had his say on how he feels proceedings at the Etihad Stadium will turn out on this occasion.
Merson drops City prediction for Brighton match
Written in his weekly column for Sportskeeda where he previewed this weekend’s Premier League games, Merson had this to say about Saturday’s clash against Brighton.
He said: “You never know what you’re going to get with Brighton – they’re a bag of rebels. Brighton are the one team that City didn’t want to play this weekend. A lot of the other teams go to the Etihad to lie down and get their stomachs tickled.
“Brighton won’t care about the occasion, however, and they’ll go out and play their own way. This is a big game for Manchester City. They’ve lost three of their last four matches, and there will be doubt in their mind. They follow this up with matches against Man United, Liverpool, and Chelsea – this is an important juncture of the season for them.
“If Man City lose this game, they’ll drop to third place in the Premier League. They aren’t used to losing a lot of games. Brighton will play their own way, but I don’t see City dropping points in this match.”
Having lost their two previous league matches against Wolves and Arsenal prior to the international break, the City players will undoubtedly want to get back to winning ways as soon as possible, starting with this game against Brighton.
With eight games played, the Seagulls (21) have scored four more goals than Pep Guardiola’s side (17), although they have conceded 16 goals in total compared to City’s six.
This shows that while the home side will have to be strong at the back to stop their opponents from scoring, they could have some luck in being able to score goals against them.
Bearing in mind how City have the highest total of passes into the final third of the pitch (373) in the league this season as well as the second-highest rate of shot-creating actions per 90 minutes (30.5), this highlights the sort of challenge Brighton will be facing tomorrow afternoon.
Moving forward, given the disappointing pair of results that the Manchester club picked up before the international break, there will be a lot of pressure on the home side to do what Merson has suggested and get a convincing victory on Saturday.
