Clive Tyldesley will be commentating live from the AMEX Stadium on NBC SN this Sunday on the Brighton v Manchester City game which may well decide the 2018/19 EPL title.

Here in his first article for Prost International, he previews the big game.

by Clive Tyldesley 

If Manchester City could actually choose their opponent for the final decisive game of their Premier League title defence, Pep Guardiola might just go for Brighton.

It is two months since Chris Hughton’s team won a match and yet their primary objective of dodging the relegation bullet was achieved last weekend with Cardiff City’s predictable slide back into the Championship.
Brighton has a very famous beach and the town’s football players may already be metaphorically on it. City’s titanic tussle for top spot with Liverpool is not their argument.

In terms of motivation, this is no contest. One team is here on business, the other could just be starting to think about vacations.

The title has been City’s to lose since Liverpool drew at Everton on March 3rd. All Guardiola’s team have had to do in the meantime is keep on winning. Little did they know that ‘keep on winning’ would be the minimum requirement for them to see it through.

City have won 13 Premier League games on the bounce. Jab after jab has landed squarely on Jurgen Klopp’s chin but none of them have wiped the broad smile off his face.

If this remarkable week of unlikely dramas in English football has one more twisting turn to take, it could be the wearing, wearying intensity of Liverpool’s pursuit finally playing on City’s frayed nerves. Klopp’s boys just won’t go away.

Guardiola has been speaking more about Liverpool than his own team just lately. They are looming large in his rear view mirror.

Having paid them the compliment of saying they are one of the two most formidable rivals he has ever faced as a coach, Pep has this week claimed the English media are wishing and hoping for Liverpool to prevail in this relentless race to the finishing line.

It has been a good, clean fight so far. None of the prickly mind games of the Ferguson, Wenger, Mourinho contests of the past. But now Guardiola is telling anyone who will listen that the last two months have been easy for Liverpool because there is less pressure on the pursuer.

This theory conveniently overlooks the number of times that Liverpool have been asked to follow City by the fixture schedulers. It has been a high stakes ‘see you, raise you’ poker game. On Sunday, the two hustlers will play their hands at the same time but on different tables. Bad news travels fast on days like these. If Liverpool score early against Wolves at Anfield the Kop roars will be audible 270 miles away on the south coast.

Reaching the Champions League final has extended Liverpool’s season beyond this weekend and refuelled their energetic belief. City still have the FA Cup final to come but this is the prize they have been eyeing all season long. No team has won back-to-back titles since Manchester United a decade ago.

Guardiola has a restless, tormented look about him at the best of times. Three of City’s last four wins have been gained by just a single goal. The longer that Brighton can stay in the hunt,the more the tension will be ramped up. They made a game of the Cup semi at Wembley last month despite conceding early to City but that was a match in which they had major incentives. This is not.

The Brighton Player of the Year awards were dominated by their two hardy centre-backs, Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy. They are born resistance leaders but if David Silva and Bernardo Silva start to pull them out of position with their craft and guile, the doors they are guarding will begin to swing open.

The blunt reality is that City can only really beat themselves. A rush of red card blood from Vincent Kompany or an improbable pass too many by Ederson and Glenn Murray’s canny eye for goal may widen but if City keep their heads and keep control, they will keep their hands on the Premier League trophy.