Graham Potter Brighton
Brighton manager Graham Potter was proud of the way his players reacted against a Manchester City side that made league leaders Chelsea look ‘ordinary’. Noting the way City had performed at Chelsea and Liverpool earlier this season, he was still thrilled with the level of his side to cause Pep Guardiola’s side problems that they had not been able to do in the first half.
Graham Potter said: “I think we were probably just a little more positive with our play through the middle of the pitch, maybe we were a little bit better there. We threatened their backline more. That would be my first thought on it. Also you’ve got to hold your hands up and say the opponent at 0-0 is a different opponent at 3-0. I watched Man City play at Chelsea and they made Chelsea look like an ordinary team – and these are the champions of Europe. They went to Anfield and, apart from Mo Salah, were fantastic. We can always do things better but you also have to credit the opponent for making things very very difficult for us. Up to 85 minutes I thought we were the better team in the second half, the performance level was amazing. We ran out of steam in fairness to us in the last five minutes because we put so much into the game. They brought on [Kevin] De Bruyne and [Riyad] Mahrez and controlled the game and saw it out. We can’t say that we deserved to win anything or take anything from the game but the performance of the guys I was really proud – so, so proud.”
City raced into a three-goal lead at the Amex Stadium on Saturday night before seeing off a more spirited response from the hosts to claim a 4-1 victory. That keeps them two points behind the early frontrunners Chelsea, following their 7-0 thrashing of Norwich, as they look to best City again after winning the Champions League final in May. Potter was not bold enough to think that the half-time scoreline did not play a part in the way the second half panned out.
