In the early morning of April 21, when Brighton used a tight defense to keep a clean sheet in the first half, it is estimated that many Liverpool fans who stayed up late to watch the ball were overjoyed. Unfortunately, one person's heroic play in the second half shattered Liverpool's dream of really leading the way. He was De Bruyne. With 1 assist and 5 key passes, City eventually beat the King of New London 3-0 and regained their top spot in the Premier League. It is worth mentioning that this is De Bruyne's 300th game for Manchester City.
It's a 30th round of the Premier League, and Brighton have beaten Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur in a row recently. City also lost 3-2 away to the Seagulls last season. However, the first leg of the season between the two teams, Manchester City won 4-1 away from home and easy. In this game, Guardiola played the main force, and Mahrez, Gundogan, Rodri, De Bruyne, Laporte and Ederson all rotated. However, because Walker was injured and changed to right-back, Cancelo and Mahrez in front of him were very similar due to their technical characteristics, and the two often overlapped positions, making it difficult to play an effective combination. Attacking on the right is not powerful, and the left side of the center-back Acker is even more difficult to handle, so in the first half, although Manchester City also had many shots, they could not threaten the opponent.
In the second half, Acker suffered an ankle sprain, Ruben Dias made his Manchester City debut after the injury, Stones switched to right-back, and Canselo returned to the familiar left-back position, so that City's attack was activated instead, Canceló and Foden took turns to attack, putting the Brighton back under great pressure, and De Bruyne on the right was fully activated. In the 53rd minute, it was his strong burst that was blocked, and the ball accidentally hit the feet of Mahrez, whose shot from inside the penalty area hit the defender and deflected into the net, and Manchester City finally broke the deadlock on the field.
In the 65th minute, Mahrez fired a tactical corner kick and Foden scored from 30 yards on the right side of the field and fired a long-range shot that knocked on Brighton's goal again. In the 82nd minute of the game, Manchester City successfully intercepted the front, De Bruyne sent a pass, Bernardo Silva shot successfully from the edge of the penalty area, and Manchester City finally won 3-0.
In this campaign, City had 65% of the ball, scoring 3 goals on 5 of 17 shots on goal, while Brighton only shot 2 and 1 goal. The defending Premier League champions have shown great strength. The biggest contributor to City's victory in this game was not the 3 goalscorers, but the midfielder's true core De Bruyne. In this game, the Belgian midfielder played 83 minutes, 3 shots and 1 did not score but received 1 assist, and dedicated the highest 5 key passes of the game, if it were not for the poor ability of Manchester City forwards to grasp opportunities, Tintin's stats could be better.
So far this season, De Bruyne has played in 38 games in all competitions, scoring 14 goals and providing nine assists. Among them, the Premier League has 11 goals and 4 assists in 25 games, which is only 2 goals away from his single-season league goal record. In the absence of a central striker, the world's no. 1 midfielder took on the task of scoring goals and carried Manchester City forward. And this, in fact, is also to make up for the regrets of 3 years ago.
In the 2018/19 season, Manchester City began the new season as the defending champions of the Premier League, but in the first round of the 2-0 away win over Arsenal, substitute De Bruyne suffered a serious injury and a long-term suspension, and finally played only 32 games in all competitions to achieve 6 goals and 10 assists in the entire season, and only 19 appearances in the Premier League. Fortunately, Bernardo Silva performed well to carry the banner of Manchester City's midfield, and finally led the team to a slight advantage of 1 point to defeat Liverpool's successful defense. But for De Bruyne, it was more or less a pity.
Now, Manchester City has once again ushered in a familiar plot, being chased by Liverpool with a 1-point difference. This time, De Bruyne is no longer a bystander, but carries Manchester City's forward thighs. The regrets of 3 years ago will be swept away.