Manchester City team news: Georginio could feature

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Albion head into Sunday's game with one point from their opening two Premier League matches.

Charlie Hanson

2025-08-28T15:00+01:00

Georginio started in Albion's opening game of the Premier League season, before missing the trip to Everton last week. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

Albion will go in search of their first win of the new Premier League campaign as they take on Manchester City at the Amex on Sunday, kick-off 2pm.

Team news

Fabian Hurzeler provided the following update on Georginio Rutter, Julio Enciso and Solly March ahead of Sunday's match.

"Georgi wasn't involved yesterday (Wednesday night against Oxford). We would have liked to have had him involved yesterday, so it might be that Sunday is a close thing, I am unsure. But for sure he is an option to be available.

"Julio doesn't have a big injury. He's back in rehab training. It's very important that the players know our thoughts and our plans for the future. We always have an open conversation with Julio and we will see what happens in the next days.

"Solly’s doing well. I don't say perfect. It's going well but there can always be things we can improve with him regarding his injury. It's very important he and us stay positive. I think there are some phases during a rehab where you are mentally down, where you have a setback, where you don't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

"But I think it's always important to stay positive, to see the support he has here, to see my support. We are all looking forward to seeing him back on the pitch and we still have the biggest belief in him. He has his own ability and his own strengths, not only physical strengths, but the mental strength that he will come back as the great player Solly March was before, because he is an unbelievable player and can help this club."

Their last line-up

Your first home line-up of 25/26! 👊🩵

XI | Trafford, Lewis, Stones, Dias (C), Ait-Nouri, Nico, Reijnders, Bobb, Cherki, Marmoush, Haaland

SUBS | Ederson, Ake, Doku, Rodri, Bernardo, Nunes, O'Reilly, Khusanov, Foden

🤝 @etihad pic.twitter.com/A7fV1jrDMR
— Manchester City (@ManCity) August 23, 2025

Having beaten Wolves 4-0 on the opening day, City lost 2-0 to Tottenham at the Etihad. Goals from Brennan Johnson and Joao Palhinha condemned the Cityzens to defeat.

Match facts

Between 2017-18 and 2023-24, Brighton and Hove Albion only avoided defeat in two of 14 Premier League games against Man City (W1 D1 L12); last season, they didn’t lose against City, winning 2-1 at home and drawing 2-2 at the Etihad.

Manchester City have won 19 out of 30 league matches against Brighton (63.3%) – among the 46 teams they’ve faced 25+ times, the only side they have a higher win ratio against is Swansea City (23 wins in 34 games, 67.6%).

Only three teams have produced a higher xG in their opening two Premier League games this season than Brighton (3.91), although the Seagulls have just one goal so far, the biggest negative differential of any side (-2.91).

Since losing 5-1 at Arsenal in February, Manchester City have conceded just one goal in seven away Premier League matches, keeping five clean sheets in a row. Only four sides have kept six in a row, most recently Arsenal in 2023-24 between February and April. City have never had six consecutive away league clean sheets in their history.

Brighton and Hove Albion are winless in their opening two Premier League games this season (D1 L1) – in only one of the last 15 league seasons have they failed to win their opening three games, doing so in 2017-18 in their first Premier League campaign (D1 L2).

Brighton rank second for successful passes in their own half of the pitch in the Premier League this season (503) but are 15th for completed passes in the opposition half (282). The top two combinations for passes between players in 2025-26 are Brighton central defenders Lewis Dunk and Jan Paul van Hecke (119) and Dunk and goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen (65).

Pep Guardiola is winless in both of his Premier League meetings with Brighton boss Fabian Hürzeler, who was only 15 years of age when Guardiola managed his first match with Barcelona in 2008. In Guardiola’s entire top-flight managerial league career, the only manager he’s faced three times without beating is Ronald Koeman (P3 D2 L1).

Manchester City’s Phil Foden has scored six goals in six away Premier League appearances against Brighton, with only Mohamed Salah scoring as often at the Amex as a visiting player (also six). Overall, his eight goals against the Seagulls are his most against an opponent in the competition.

This match will be Erling Haaland’s 100th Premier League appearance – the Manchester City frontman has already scored more goals than any other player in his first 100 games (87) while he’s also scored more than West Bromwich Albion managed in their first 100 games as a team (86).

Mats Wieffer has made 12 tackles in the Premier League this season for Brighton, the most of any player so far this campaign. Wieffer averages 5.3 tackles per 90 minutes for the Seagulls, comfortably the most of any player to play 500+ minutes in the competition for them.

Match officials