Manchester City Fan View: Pep Guardiola's summer signings must prove worth at Brighton

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City get their Premier League season underway on Saturday.

The Blues, regarded by many as title favourites, are being hosted by newly-promoted Brighton and Hove Albion. As disparity between opening day opening opponents goes, they don’t come much starker.

Guardiola has performed a significant transformation of his City squad this summer, spending megabucks assembling the most expensive backline in football history. Given the way the fullback positions have been unaddressed for years, it’s been required spending.

The cash has been splashed to help City launch an assault on all competitions. The hunger for success is well and truly back, following the disappointment of a trophy-less campaign last time around.

For Chris Hughton and his Brighton side, there is no less hunger for success than there is in Manchester. Rather, their sights are just set significantly lower. This is The Seagull’s first venture into the top flight since 1982/83 and their sole ambition must be to stay there.

We can expect to see City and Brighton fighting at opposite ends of the table for the duration of the Premier League season. But for the vast differences in club size, for the immense disparity between spending and resources, this match holds as many dangers for Pep’s men as any other fixture this season.

The risks to City are numerous. First and foremost, Pep must guard his men against complacency. It’s hard to imagine the fiercely competitive coach would ever let it seep into his team, but it’s easy to see how it would happen. City have an almost immeasurably better squad than their opponents, after all.

The Amex Stadium will be absolutely rocking. The start of a topflight season might be pretty run-of-the-mill to us now, but not for the team on the coast. Their supporters have dreamed of this day for decades; the atmosphere will reflect that.

How Chris Hughton will approach the game is the unknown. Will he be as he was when he managed Norwich – dull and defensive? Or will he have learned that it’s better to go out on your shield and attack? It strikes me that this is the point where the Blues are most vulnerable and I am more concerned about the home side attacking than I am about them setting up defensively.

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Guardiola must work out his best set-up. New goalkeeper Ederson will surely make his debut and may surprise people with his sort-of-secret weapon – his long kick. Expect the ‘keeper to be picking up assists from goal kicks throughout the season.

In defence, the decision is whether to put Kyle Walker or Danilo at right back. Or maybe it’s Walker at right back and between Benjamin Mendy and Danilo for left back. But then again, it could be a back three with two wing-backs. The permutations are many – Pep might be more unpredictable than ever this season.

City need to get their season off to a flyer. On any given day, they should beat Brighton. But football would be boring if that was predictable.