**City are the heavy favorites here, but Brighton's injury crisis makes this a mismatch even by cup standards.** 🔵 A chance for Pep to rotate and fine-tune before the sprint to Christmas.

City have been hot-and-cold lately — spanked Aston Villa but bounced back with that 5-1 blitz over AEK. Brighton are without half their squad, including key midfielders, so don't expect much resistance despite their decent recent run.

Key storylines:

- **Erling Haaland** will be licking his lips against a backline stretched thin by injuries
- **City's rotation** — Pep has defensive reinforcements (Dias, Gvardiol, Guéhi) so he can afford to experiment in attack
- Brighton's **injury carnage** (Ferguson, Mitoma, Wieffer, Tzimas out) means they'll be on survival mode

Expected lineups:

- **Manchester City**: Donnarumma, Gvardiol, Dias, Guéhi, Lewis, Fernández, Anderson, Ndiaye, Cherki, Allan, Haaland
- **Brighton & Hove Albion**: Verbruggen, Vušković, Boscagli, Svoboda, De Cuyper, Groß, Gómez, Kostoulas, Ibrahim, David, Oriola

Prediction:

**City 3-0 Brighton** — the hosts should cruise through. Haaland bags at least one, the midfield controls tempo, and Brighton just won't have the bodies to compete. 💪

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