2 **^ Sunday 1 September 2019 The Sunday Telegraph
Sport Premier League
Brighton show courage but unable to halt City’s stroll to victory
Master stroke: Sergio Aguero of Manchester City steers home his team’s third goalVICTORIA HAYDN/MANCHESTER CITY FC VIA GETTY IMAGESManchester City
De Bruyne 2, Aguero 42, 55, Bernardo Silva 79^4
Brighton
0
Att: 54,386
By Jim White at Etihad Stadium
Manchester City ease on, winning here
with a certainty that already suggests
any attempt to prevent them securing
three championship victories in suc-
cessive years is doomed to failure.
Yet, despite the shellacking score-
line, Brighton’s Graham Potter could
be forgiven for looking back on this
defeat with a degree of satisfaction.
While his predecessor Chris
Hughton would have set up his team to
embody safety first, Brighton’s new
manager is not going to die wondering
what might happen if he attacked at
Manchester City. Changing the system
from three at the back, his team bravely
took the game to their opponents at
every opportunity.
“The credit is for Brighton,” said an
impressed Pep Guardiola. “Few teams
come here to play with this courage.
Managers like Graham are good for
football.”
As an approach, however, it did not
have long to bed in: City were one up
within two minutes. Kevin De Bruyne
scored the goal, side-footing home
David Silva’s gilt-edged invitation of a
cutback before the stalwarts of the
expensive seats had taken up their
position.
It was a chastening moment. But,
admirably, the ruthless execution by
the home team did not seem to stifle
Brighton.
They remained determined to carry
out their manager’s instructions, they
tried to play out from the back, they
were keen to commit as many as possi-
ble to the counter.
Brighton’s trouble was the number
of positions from which City squeeze
their room for manoeuvre.
With Raheem Sterling on the left,
cutting in on his right foot, and Riyad
Mahrez out on the right, moving in on
his left, blue shirts seemed to be arriv-
ing from all angles.
Every time Brighton tried to pass
their way out of trouble, they found the
City press on their toes. Just as they
were getting back into the game, just as
the admirable Dale Stephens was
beginning to spray the ball around
from midfield, first Sterling set up Silva
for an identikit chance to the one he
had offered De Bruyne, which the
Spaniard hit wide, then De Bruyne
sped down the right and passed inside
to Sergio Aguero. There was only everand confidence of a man who does not
believe he is ever going to miss. And no
wonder. Here’s a statistic which sums
up his efficiency: that was Aguero’s sev-
enth goal from his last seven shots, a
run which began at Brighton last sea-
son.
“He will die scoring goals,” said
Guardiola.
Not that City were satisfied with
securing three points within the hour.
As Guardiola scowled on, they contin-
ued to press, to probe, to delight.
Kyle Walker, apparently not good
enough for England, sped down the
wing, De Bruyne volleyed over the bar,
then substitute Ilkay Gundogan hit a
free-kick wide. Bernardo Silva, after
receiving urgent instruction from his
manager, came on as substitute, eased
into the area on to Aguero’s pass and
scored with his first touch of the ball.
For City it was so easy it made a stroll
in the park look like a Himalayan trek.
For Brighton it was heroic failure. It
could be the theme of both their sea-
sons.
Manchester City (4-2-3-1) Ederson 6; Walker 7, Laporte 5
(Fernandinho 36), Otamendi 6, Zinchenko 6; Rodrigo 6, De
Bruyne 7 (Gundogan 68); Mahrez 7, D Silva 7 (B Silva 78),
Sterling 6; Aguero 9 Subs Bravo (g), Angelino, Cancelo, Foden
Booked Laporte
Brighton (4-4-2) Ryan 6; Montoya 6, Webster 6, Dunk 6, Burn
5; Stephens 7, Propper 6, Bernardo 5 (Murray 67), March 5;
Trossard 5 (Gross 74), Maupay 6 (Connolly 66) Subs Button
(g), Duffy, Jahanbakhsh, Mooy Booked Dunk
Referee Jonathan Moss (West Yorkshire)going to be one conclusion to that
move: the Argentinian walloped the
ball past Mat Ryan for the second goal.
Last season, so much of City’s
rhythm came from the strolling metro-
nome Fernandinho. But it is a function
of Pep Guardiola’s restless search forperfection that over the summer he
sought to upgrade even in a position
where he seemed unassailable.
Initial suggestions are that the new
signing Rodrigo is already comfortably
sitting in where the Brazilian used to
patrol.Not that City were without Fernand-
inho for long here. Aymeric Laporte
was carried off on a stretcher after
stalling a Brighton counter-attack with
a self-destructive foul on the charging
Adam Webster. It looked a serious
knock. He was replaced, to a huge roar
of appreciation, by Fernandinho who
gave further proof of the City way by
looking not remotely out of position at
centre-back, sniffing out any hint of
Brighton danger often before Brighton
realised they were a threat.
And the visitors did keep trying to
respond. First Martin Montoya bril-
liantly set up Leandro Trossard, who
took too long sorting out his feet. Then
Neal Maupay’s cheeky dummy set up
Trossard, whose shot was parried by
Ederson.
The Belgian completed a hat-trick of
missed chances early in the second
half, again fluffing his lines in front of
the City goal, not striking the ball
cleanly enough, allowing Fernandinho- who else? – to block his shot.
If Trossard needed a role model in
the art of finishing, he was there in a
sky blue shirt. A couple of minutes
after his third miss, Aguero took the
ball from Silva on the edge of the
Brighton area, moved into a shooting
position and smoothed the ball past
Ryan for his second goal.
It demonstrated the kind of touch
Table
P W D L F A GD Pts
Liverpool 4 4 0 0 12 3 9 12
Man City 4 3 1 0 14 3 11 10
Leicester 4 2 2 0 6 3 3 8
Crystal Palace 4 2 1 1 3 2 1 7
West Ham 4 2 1 1 6 7 -1 7
Arsenal 3 2 0 1 4 4 0 6
Man Utd 4 1 2 1 7 4 3 5
Sheff Utd 4 1 2 1 5 5 0 5
Chelsea 4 1 2 1 6 9 -3 5
Tottenham 3 1 1 1 5 4 1 4
Burnley 4 1 1 2 5 6 -1 4
Everton 3 1 1 1 1 2 -1 4
Southampton 4 1 1 2 4 6 -2 4
Newcastle 4 1 1 2 3 5 -2 4
AFC Bournemouth 4 1 1 2 5 8 -3 4
Brighton 4 1 1 2 4 7 -3 4
Wolverhampton 3 0 3 0 2 2 0 3
Aston Villa 4 1 0 3 4 6 -2 3
Norwich 4 1 0 3 6 10 -4 3
Watford 4 0 1 3 2 8 -6 1obliged to reject the possibility that the
midfielder might depart for Real Ma-
drid following some cryptic remarks
from Zinedine Zidane in Madrid. Pogba
left St Mary’s with a limp, although
Solskjaer said the Frenchman would
report for international duty and then
come back after Monday’s transfer
deadline a United player. His effect on
the game was fleeting once more.
This was a crucial point for
Southampton. Jannik Vestergaard
outjumped Victor Lindelof for their
equaliser before the hour, created by
Danso before his dismissal. The hosts
had struggled once their early pressing
of United subsided but Ralph
Hasenhuttl changed the approach at
half-time and it paid dividends. There
were some excellent individual perfor-
mances, from Oriol Romeu, Vester-
gaard and the relentless Danny Ings.United fail to take
advantage after
Danso is sent off
After four games last season, and one
appeal for respect, Jose Mourinho had
six points as manager of Manchester
United – one more than Ole Gunnar
Solskjaer at the same stage, as he heads
into an international break promising
that his team are “getting there”.
Getting where, exactly, is not yet
clear, although it feels an awful long
way from the ruthless winning
machine of old, with the ghosts of the
past making more grim proclamations
about the future. Paul Scholes said that
it would take another five transfer win-
dows for United to fix their problems
and already this season’s Premier
League title race feels like a competi-
tion taking place in a different room.
United have not earned fewer points
from their first four games of a season
since the days when the Class of ’92
were still in the year of 1992, that being
the season of Sir Alex Ferguson’s first
Premier League title – 1992-1993. Then
they began with two defeats, one draw
and one win and from such an inauspi-
cious start, United bounced back to
win their first league title in 26 years.
These days it is a different competition
with much less of a margin for error.
They played 21 minutes of regulation
and added-on time after Kevin Danso
was dismissed for a second yellow
card, up against a Southampton team
struggling for confidence themselves,
and yet United never looked like over-
whelming the home side. It is just that
the United of 2019 are so mediocre, to
the extent that their goalscorer, Daniel
James, a promising young prospect
with a fierce right foot, stands out as
their best attacking option.
They have gambled on discarding
Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez
and putting faith in young players, an
approach which is all part of the mysti-
cism of the club but on this occasion
was simply not enough. At 17, Mason
Greenwood was the last striker thrust
into the game and might even have
won it with a shot well-saved by Angus
Gunn and then a good penalty appeal.
Will these kids deliver for Solskjaer the
way that another generation once did
for Ferguson? Certainly Scholes, one of
that fabled 1990s generation, seems to
think it will only be better signings that
change the club’s fortunes.
The dreary saga of Paul Pogba’s
future dragged on, with Solskjaer again
Later Hasenhuttl explained that he
had asked his midfielders, Pierre-Emile
Hojbjerg and Romeu, to resist the
temptation to chase down Pogba at
every occasion and the greater balance
worked better. Indeed, once Vester-
gaard scored it felt like a game that
could go either way. Danso had been
booked in the first half and his second
yellow card after 73 minutes was a
clumsy takedown of Scott McTominay.
It had all started so well for United
when James scored his third Premier
League goal of the season after 10
minutes, cutting in from the left and
lashing the ball past Gunn. The 21-year-
old is quick and he takes his shots early,
an approach that has yielded him the
same number of league goals as
Sanchez achieved in 18 months.
That was the moment for United to
kill the game and there was a save 12
minutes later from Gunn from another
James shot that was important. This
was the period in which United should
have stretched their lead but the
chance was missed, Solskjaer would
reflect later. “We dominated the last
three games and we know we are on
the right track, getting used to that way
of playing,” he said. “The last three
games haven’t given us many points in
return but we are getting there. We are
getting better playing this way.
“We just got the game where we
wanted. We were winning 1-0 and that
is where you can get that counter-
attack in football, be more clinical and
ruthless when we go forward, but it
wasn’t to be. We just gave them enough
encouragement to stay in the game.”
Stay in the game Saints did, a good
sign for the spirit and energy in the
side. Ings’s running galvanised their
attack and he was unlucky that Che
Adams did not anticipate a cross of his
from the right. The equaliser came
when Ings’s flicked header was initially
saved by David de Gea. Danso took his
time over the cross and dropped it onto
the head of Vestergaard.
His red card prompted a major reor-
ganisation from Hasenhuttl at the point
where he might even have been think-
ing about trying to win the game. “It’s
about the character and mentality,” the
Austrian said. “The guys showed a lot
of it and we are very happy about that.”Southampton (4-1-3-2) Gunn 7; Cedric 6, Bednarek 7,
Vestergaard 7, Danso 5; Hojbjerg 7; Ward-Prowse 6,
Romeu 8, Boufal 6 (Armstrong 71); Ings 8 (Yoshida 77),
Adams 6 (Long 62). Subs McCarthy (g), Stephens, N’Lundulu,
Valery. Booked Armstrong. Sent off Danso.
Manchester United (4-2-3-1) De Gea 6; Wan-Bissaka 6,
Lindelof 5, Maguire 6, Young 6; Pogba 5, McTominay 6
(Greenwood 82); Pereira 6 (Lingard 67), Mata 5 (Matic 67),
James 7; Rashford 5. Subs Romero (g), Rojo, Tuanzebe, Chong.
Booked Maguire Young.
Referee Mike Dean (Cheshire).Striker light Four crosses through the six-yard box in final 11
Southampton
Vestergaard 58^1
Manchester United
James 10^1
Att: 30,499
By Sam Wallace at St Mary’s Stadium
86 mins Daniel James was next to threaten as United turned the
screw but again his cross was just too far in front of Rashford.79 mins Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s cross just evaded Marcus
Rashford, United’s principle striker after Romelu Lukaku’s exit.Fierce shot: Daniel James gives United the
lead after 10 minutes at SouthamptonHeads up: Jannik Vestergaard outjumps
Victor Lindelof to score the equaliserGETTY IMAGESRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws