MANCHESTER CITY VS BRIGHTON: PREVIEW

Champions Manchester City host Brighton and Hove Albion this weekend, a fixture that was won convincingly by Guardiola’s City on both occasions last season.

Manchester City played Brighton last season away on the opening game of the season, beginning their record-breaking season with a 2-0 win with an opening goal from Sergio Aguero and an own goal from Lewis Dunk.

The second meeting saw Danilo, Bernardo Silva and Fernandinho all score for City, capturing all three points despite a Leonardo Ulloa equalizer to make the game 1-1in the 20th minute.

The game will be played at the Etihad Stadium with kick off at 3pm, meaning the game will not be televised for UK audiences.

Here is what both managers had to say in their pre-match press conferences:

Pep Guardiola:

On Brighton: “(Brighton) have been together a long time, they know what they have to do. They are really well organized. It will be a really tough game, but we know that and we will try to do a good game.”

On Phil Foden potentially singing a new contract: “I don’t know. Phil likes to be here and the club has no doubt about that, the manager has no doubts. Hopefully it’ll happen soon but I have no involvement in that.”

Guardiola gave injury updates on Benjamin Mendy and Kevin De Bruyne saying both of them may begin training in the next few days and everything is going well.

Here is what Brighton manager Chris Hughton had to say:

On Pep Guardiola: “These types of managers are guiding the young aspiring coaches and the impact he’s had has been huge.”

On whether this is the toughest game of their season: “In the form they’re I, the two toughest are Liverpool. Which we did okay in and might have got a result, and Manchester City. You always have to look at the plusses in those types of games. Nobody expects us to get anything.”

Hughton also gave updates on Dale Stephens and Pascal Gross who will both miss the game though both will hopefully be available for the next game.

With Brighton being able to beat Manchester United and losing by a one goal margin to Liverpool and Tottenham, Brighton may come into the game positively despite the recent form of Manchester City in the league.

That’s it for our preview, to get live goal updates for the game follow @PLQuality_ on twitter and be sure to check out our match previews for all this weekends games.