Manchester City v Brighton – Head To Head

After a week of cup football, Manchester City return to Premier League action as Brighton and Hove Albion visit the Etihad Stadium. A win could see the blues move into 3^rd place in the league, dependent on Spurs’ result at home to Fulham, and close the gap on leaders United to four points with a game in hand.

The face a Brighton side who are just one place above the relegation zone and three points clear of Fulham, although the Cottagers will still have two games in hand after tonight’s round of matches. The two teams have not met that often, with tonight’s game being just the 11^th match played in Manchester, and City will be looking to continue their impressive form against the Seagulls.

The blues are unbeaten in all their home matches against Brighton, winning 8 from the 10 matches played to date. The blues have won the last 6 played on home soil, a run stretching back to November 1983, while the unbeaten run goes back as far as August 1979, when the blues won their first league encounter 3-2 at Maine Road.

City have score 17 goals in their current winning streak, conceding just two and overall, scoring 27 and conceding 6. City have kept 5 clean sheets and have never failed to score in this fixture and heir biggest win is 4-0 – February 1982, November 1983 and August 2019. Brighton have scored more than one goal in just one match – that 3-2 defeat in 1979.

Tonight’s match will be the 8^th top-flight meeting between the two, with 3 meetings taking place in the old Second Division. The last time they met outside the top division was September 1988, when City won 2-1 thanks to goals from Ian Brightwell and Paul Moulden.

It has been 39 years since Brighton left City with a point, will the blues be able to extend that run and make it 40?