Kyle Walker impresses against Brighton as patient Manchester City earn winning start in Premier League

Pep Guardiola’s second season as Manchester City got off to a winning start on Saturday. The Blues travelled to Brighton and Hove Albion as The Seagulls competed in a top-flight fixture for the first time since 1983.

It took 70 minutes for the travelling side to break down Brighton’s resilient rearguard effort. At times it felt like almost every game of last season; dominating possession but struggling to carve out chances. On too many occasions last season, we left those matches frustrated – but not today.

Full backs

The bulk of the outlay on transfers this summer has been for full backs. All four of the previous occupants of those positions departed and three replacements have been brought in. With Benjamin Mendy sidelined, debuts were given to Kyle Walker and Danilo.

The two operated as wing backs, pushing high from the first minute and trying to give their team an added attacking impetus. Danilo has drawn a small amount of criticism for his performance but in his defence, he was playing on the left. He is clearly more suited to the right.

This meant that every time he got right and was played in by a teammate, he missed the opportunity to play a first –time cross. He needed to cut back on to his right foot and in doing so, slowed attacks down, The good thing is, Mendy is a hell of a crosser of a ball – we saw that to devastating effect last season when Monaco dumped City out of the Champions League. Danilo will work better in his more natural position.

On the other flank, Kyle Walker was City’s most eye-catching performer. The £53m signing from Tottenham was a breath of fresh air. Pablo Zabaleta and Bacary Sagna offered little going forward last term, but Walker was keen to take on defenders every time the opportunity arose, and his link up play with the more creative players was good.

We have reason to be excited here. We saw the quality of Walker and we saw the purpose of the system; get the wide men into positions to deliver damaging crosses. It will work – all we need then is for the attackers to be clinical.

Patience

City had to show patience in abundance here. They prodded and they probed until they finally split Brighton open. Neither David Silva nor Kevin De Bruyne had their greatest games but they combined to set Sergio Agüero up for the opener.

Though most teams play defensively when they face City, few will sit this deep for 90 minutes. They will test the new defenders and goalkeeper more and we’ll really see how good the investment has been. However, that will also mean they will leave more space to exploit – this City team has the potential to crush teams who leave any gaps.

This is just one match. It was not spectacular but the fantastic travelling support got to visit a new stadium and justified their 518 mile round trip by seeing their side pick up a win.

On an opening weekend when Liverpool dropped points late at Watford, Arsenal were made to sweat and Chelsea suffered a shock loss to Burnley, we should be thankful that City did things with minimal fuss. That is so rarely the City way.