Our reporter Michael Plant gives his thoughts on Manchester City's win over Brighton & Hove Albion, and reflects on the sad news that Sir Bobby Charlton has passed away.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Hello, it's Michael Plante coming to you from outside the Etihad Stadium after tonight's
00:05 or this afternoon's Premier League game between Manchester City and Brighton Hove Albion.
00:08 All pretty quiet now, we're around probably an hour and a half after the game ended. I'm
00:13 going to kind of walk and talk as I'm coming back, I tend to do my post-match videos from
00:17 inside the ground but a busy day as I'm just going to touch on in a second and I've got
00:22 round to it. But before I do touch on the match here at the Etihad, I think we sadly
00:26 need to start with a sadder point at the start of this video and that is the very tragic
00:32 news that Sir Bobby Charlton has died today at the age of 86. The announcement was made
00:37 at around 4 o'clock this afternoon. Very sad news of course, a legendary figure both in
00:46 City of Manchester football, obviously his links with Manchester United and everything
00:50 he achieved there as a player, coming back, surviving the Munich air crash and having
00:57 the strength to come back after that to go on to win the 1986 European Cup with United
01:04 and then of course all the achievements that he had after his playing career when he stayed
01:09 on with the club as a director. Watch Gary Neville just talk about how the fact that
01:13 United continued to wear suits, actually a lot of that came from Sir Bobby Charlton as
01:18 well, of course part of the 1966 England World Cup went inside and just a tragic day really
01:23 for English football and I think for world football really as well. So a very sad day
01:28 and I think Pep Guardiola spoke about it here after the match. I've seen lots of clips on
01:32 social media of people paying their respects to, by all accounts, a fantastic man as well
01:37 as obviously a fantastic footballer. So it is difficult to talk about the football after
01:42 that but sadly we will just continue and reflect on a very entertaining game here between Manchester
01:51 City and Brighton. It was one that City ultimately won 2-1, I think deservedly, took the three
01:56 points in the end and put in a good performance without being at their very best. I think
02:00 the first half they were, well the first 20 minutes in particular, they were absolutely
02:03 spectacular. That was really City at their best in terms of how they controlled possession,
02:08 limited Brighton's opportunities to score and netted two goals themselves through Julian
02:12 Alvarez. Actually quite a funny goal really because the ball went out to Doku out left
02:19 who cut it back to Alvarez in the middle of the box and he went to shoot in the far corner,
02:24 mishit the ball and it almost ended up going in the other corner past Luke Steele, the
02:28 Brighton goalkeeper. So City took an early lead. It was actually only seven minutes but
02:31 they came flying out of the traps and got another one soon after in 20 minutes, mistaking
02:35 the Brighton midfield loose sloppy pass which presented the ball to Erling Haaland from
02:40 the edge of the box. You can imagine what happens when he manages to get a clean strike
02:44 on goal. Of course it resulted in a goal for him, his first actually in three Premier League
02:49 games, not maybe been quite at his best in recent weeks but him scoring today avoided
02:54 a new record. Actually if he wouldn't have scored today, it would have been three Premier
02:57 League games in a row that he wouldn't have scored but he avoided that unwanted accolade.
03:02 From there, City really only had five chances, five shots in the first half and I thought
03:07 they were going to come out in the second half and play much better but actually they
03:10 were a bit slower really. Maybe perhaps I think it's something you see from City in
03:15 the early weeks of the season that very often they're not their best. I remember it happening
03:19 last season, perhaps the season before a little bit as well, they just don't really, you know,
03:25 firing on all cylinders I suppose and really aren't one of their best in the second half,
03:29 particularly in the last hour and Matoma down the left for Brighton really caused City all
03:32 sorts of issues repeatedly actually. He got on the ball, Kyle Walker I thought played
03:37 pretty well in the first half, kept them pretty quiet but actually in the second half I found
03:40 it really difficult up against Matoma who was flying down the left and ultimately Brighton
03:44 did get a goal back through onto Faddy, a mistake from Manuel Akanji, actually poor
03:48 clearance across, Matoma cut the ball back. Akanji went to clear it, didn't really get
03:55 a sufficient contact on the ball, it fell to Faddy from a couple of yards out and he
03:59 struck it home to get Brighton back in the game. Now I have to say from there to be fair
04:02 to City I thought they managed it pretty well, Brighton didn't get many chances, I mean they
04:04 had 15 minutes to try and create a chance, a game-winning chance but a couple of injuries
04:09 slowed the momentum of the game as well but for City I mean I suppose they'll be pretty
04:14 pleased with actually the fact that they did manage to limit Brighton's opportunities to
04:18 even create anything, any chance of note really. Manuel Akanji though in the final couple of
04:23 minutes was sent off second booking of the afternoon, I think particularly disappointed
04:27 about that because actually Pep Guardiola of course has spoken a lot about Rodri recently
04:31 and what he viewed as kind of needless yellow card sending off, again snotting a forest
04:37 a couple of weeks ago so he won't be happy that Akanji was sent off as well. Admittedly
04:40 there was a bit more tooth files to stop Brighton's attacks rather than Rodri's really was, a
04:46 needless file obviously for grabbing, more gives whites by the throat as well so maybe
04:53 a real shame for City and of course it means he's going to miss the next game which is
04:57 of course the Manchester Derby at Old Trafford next week so yeah big loss for City but of
05:01 course they do have the defensive resources to replace him and there's only one player
05:07 missing, he's the only, along with Devin O'Brien he's going to be the only player missing for
05:11 that but yeah just had a couple of little points to reflect on, I mean I think firstly
05:14 to say that Jeremy Doku played on the left for Manchester City today, interestingly he
05:18 selected up ahead of Jack Grealish and Pep Guardiola was actually asked at the moment
05:21 why is Doku playing more, I think there's a couple of factors in it, I think Grealish
05:24 has struggled with injuries a little bit, I think Guardiola actually said afterwards
05:29 that the treble season has had a real impact on some of these players as well, that wasn't
05:32 specifically talking about Grealish but just about his players in general but yeah it's
05:37 interesting that Grealish isn't quite in the team at the moment but Doku was absolutely
05:41 excellent today by far and away City's best player, earned man of the match, did go a
05:45 little bit quiet in the second half but first half had absolute rings around James Millman
05:49 who was playing up right back for Brighton, he can play anywhere really Millman, we've
05:53 seen that over the last two decades in the Premier League but he was awful today Millman
05:57 was really really bad, as bad as kind of half a footballer you'll see him have really, he's
06:02 taken off at half time, he's been struggling with injuries as well a little bit but Doku
06:07 just had him, ran rings around him, it seemed to be City's tactic actually to get the ball
06:11 spread out left and Doku would just fly at the Brighton defence so yeah it was a fantastic
06:18 performance from him, went a little bit quieter in the second half I would say but I think
06:21 Guardiola was absolutely thrilled with his performance and his levels and then a couple
06:27 other things, Stefan Ortega actually started in goal for City today, Ederson was on the
06:31 bench and Guardiola was asked, well actually I'm not allowed to tell you this but it was
06:35 embargoed part of the press conference so I'll have to wait until Monday for Guardiola
06:39 to explain the reasons behind that but yeah nothing particularly serious from the Manchester
06:44 City goalkeeper but Ortega came in, made one good save I thought to keep out Matoma later
06:50 on but actually the work with his feet which is so important for Guardiola as a goalkeeper
06:55 actually I really didn't think that he was particularly good in that aspect, I actually
06:58 thought Guardiola you could see him visually and visibly getting frustrated at Ortega's
07:04 kick outs and his distribution, at one point you know the ball went out of play and he
07:08 was screaming and shouting at the City goalkeeper so not perhaps a regular sight I think we'll
07:14 see but listen Guardiola was always trying to give Ortega minutes really and he played
07:17 in one of the games last season I think it was West Ham at home in the latter stages
07:21 so he was always trying to find an opportunity for him to get minutes and yeah an important
07:25 one for him today as well and didn't make any massive errors or massive mistakes, couldn't
07:29 do anything about the goal as well so yeah certainly not an awful performance for him
07:33 to come in and then just in general on City I mean I mentioned it there they're really
07:39 not at their best at the moment and this happens at the start of the season but I do think
07:42 that Guardiola will be really keen to try and get City back to their best really and
07:47 you know the way that after an hour they kind of stopped playing, it's very un-Manchester
07:50 City like actually and you know they are probably going to have to step it up a little bit because
07:54 they come in of course on the back of this without you know without by losing their last
07:59 two Premier League games the longest run they've been on in quite a while, I'm going to keep
08:02 my eyes down here, I'm going down some steps in case I trip over and fall and wouldn't
08:06 make a great Facebook live but yeah City came in this of course with two defeats in the
08:11 Premier League so you know they avoided a third which would have been a record for Guardiola
08:16 never lost three Premier League games in a row, he's never lost three league games since
08:20 I think it was 2015 when he was Bayern Munich manager so they avoided that but they do need
08:24 to step it up a little bit here because you know there's plenty of sides in and around
08:27 them who are looking pretty dangerous, obviously Spurs are in action, not just Spurs in action
08:33 I think on Monday, Liverpool won today as well they actually briefly went top of the
08:38 table and I think Arsenal are playing right now as I'm recording this video and actually
08:42 I think I overheard someone say they're losing but I'm not totally sure on that but you know
08:47 they are three teams who are playing really well at the moment and City cannot afford
08:50 to let their levels drop because they've got three good teams behind them who are chasing
08:55 them and during the season Guardiola said that in yesterday's press conference but you
08:58 know with nine games in now he's got to try and get them back to somewhere near their
09:04 best levels. So what's up next for Manchester City well it's a trip to Young Boys in the
09:09 Champions League and they go there having won the first two games in the group stage
09:13 I think that Guardiola potentially will rest a couple of players for that match and then
09:20 of course the Derby next week which is a huge game of course for us at Manchester World
09:24 Cup and covering both clubs but it's a huge game in any season and one that Parc Guardiola
09:29 will of course be desperate to win. And one final point actually just remembering that
09:33 I didn't say from earlier is John Stones actually started today for City which is really good
09:37 for them his first start of the Premier League season really struggled with injuries so far
09:40 this campaign they'll be absolutely delighted that they've got him back because he is one
09:45 of their most important players. Just paused there for a little second he is one of their
09:48 most important players where he can move into midfield and can hold on to possession so
09:51 a really important player for City but on a very sad day here in well for the City of
09:56 Manchester football wise and of course throughout the world of football yeah we are of course
10:01 all thinking about the family of Sir Bobby Charlton on this sad day. But from me Michael
10:05 Plant at the Addy Hutt Stadium thank you very much for watching.