Manchester City thrashed Brighton 4-0 at the Amex Stadium to keep the pressure on Arsenal in the race for the Premier League title – and commentator Alan Smith was particularly impressed by one star tonight.
City produced a statement performance on the south coast after Arsenal’s 5-0 thrashing of Chelsea on Tuesday.
Brighton started confidently, but Kevin De Bruyne’s magnificent header on 17 minutes paved the way for a dominant display.
Phil Foden followed up with two more goals before half-time. And there was a goal in the second-half for Julian Alvarez after several weeks without scoring.
This could easily have been a very difficult game.
But Brighton somewhat played into City’s hands in the end. They tried to beat City at their own game, and were put to the sword.
There were plenty of top performances, and De Bruyne and Foden will likely be grabbing most of the headlines. But Kyle Walker certainly enjoyed himself tonight, and Alan Smith was left pretty impressed on commentary for Sky Sports…
‘Steam train’ Kyle Walker dazzles in big Manchester City win over Brighton
Arguably, this was Walker’s best game in quite a while for City.
He had a field day up against Brighton’s young left-back Valentin Barco, who is a player City actually did show interest in before his move to the Seagulls.
Walker was a constant threat, and used the ball typically well.
The £175,000-a-week star finished the game with two assists two his name. Firstly, he crossed by De Bruyne, who did amazingly well to score the header.
And in the second-half, Walker caught Barco out with a smart run, with Ederson hitting a superb long ball into the space. He chopped inside Barco, before squaring for Alvarez to finish.
Midway through the second-half, Alan Smith said of Walker: “He’s loving it up this right-hand side. He’s like a steam train! No sign of him looking tired at the moment.”
A great outing for Walker
Brighton may well have allowed him to thrive tonight with the way they played. But take nothing away from Walker, because he was tremendous at the Amex.
His form has been a bit up and down this season. Indeed, pundit Tony Cascarino said earlier this week that Walker simply hasn’t been as good this term.
But this was much more like it from the 33-year-old, and fans will hope for similar levels of performance in the remaining games.
It was certainly good to see him getting forward so much tonight, and doubling his Premier League assist tally for the season.
