Brighton vs Man City: Expect a low scoring affair in Saturday's late kick-off

After an impressive Champions League outing at Club Brugge midweek, Manchester City are back in action with a late Saturday kick-off against Brighton & Hove Albion.

Graham Potter will be delighted with how Brighton have started the season, managing to pick up four wins, three draws and only one defeat which sits them 4th in the Premier League table – only one position behind Saturdays visitors Manchester City. With Bissouma back on the bench last week, he could return to the starting XI which would be a huge boost for the home side. Webster, Welbeck and Alzate all remain doubts due to injury.

Englishman Phil Foden could yet again lead the line for Manchester City with Torres sidelined after his foot fracture which will see him out for the next few weeks. Guardiola will most likely make several changes from the side that thrashed Brugge midweek in the Champions League, keeping players fit and fresh in order to keep the pressure on Chelsea and Liverpool who sit above them in the league.

Brighton have been rather solid this season only tasting defeat once at the hands of Everton but will have a very busy night against a free-flowing Guardiola side.

Man City can of course take teams apart and bag a fair few goals whilst doing so, however this Brighton side have seen the opposite to goal fests this term. They have only conceded 5 goals this season with an xGa that is only bettered by Liverpool, Man City and Brentford. Man City also boast the best xGa in the league by a fair margin at only 4.71, meaning we could be set for a low scoring encounter here at the Amex.

Kevin Friend takes the whistle on Saturday – a referee who is notoriously quiet on the card front. This season however, he has taken charge of only two Premier League matches and brandished 12 yellow cards.

The Dutchman Joel Veltman could have an extremely difficult night on that right hand side directly facing Englishman Jack Grealish. Veltman has gone into the book four times in only six matches this season and facing a winger who sees his opposition go into the book regularly, it could be the perfect storm.

With two sides who have hit some great tackle numbers this season facing off, it wouldn’t surprise me to see a fair few racked up. Both of these sides have direct running players which ultimately increases the tackle output. With such direct players can also come bookings. The last head to head between these seen three cards a piece and with Kevin Friend taking a turn this season, it adds some more juice to the price. Lastly the largest price of the lot. I feel this will be a low scoring game as mentioned above both have very low xGa. I expect over the 90 minutes that Man City prove far too good, so my prediction is a 2-0 City win.