London, August 13 (IANS): Manchester City kicked off their English Premier League (EPL) football season with a 2-0 away victory over newly promoted Brighton & Hove Albion at the American Express Community Stadium.
After a scoreless first half in which City attacked and the hosts remained resilient in defence, Sergio Aguero opened the scoring for the visitors in the 70th minute on Saturday, Efe news reported.
Kevin De Bruyne won the ball on the halfway line before feeding David Silva who passed to Aguero for Aguero to fire home from eight yards.
The Citizens then padded their lead when Brighton’s Lewis Dunk scored an own-goal just five minutes later. Dunk headed a Fernandinho’s cross into his own net.
After the victory, City chief coach Pep Guardiola hailed the work-rate put in by his players.
“We ran like a League One or a Conference side -- you don’t see any players on my team who don’t run and that is what I am most proud of,” Guardiola told his club’s official website.
“We are so satisfied for the first game, the way we played. It was quite similar level to pre-season in terms of working without the ball, and we are going to improve,” he added.
“We controlled the counter-attacks, we conceded just one chance in 90 minutes away from home and that’s not easy in the Premier League.”
With the victory, City are now provisionally in second place in the EPL standings with three points, while Brighton are in the 19th spot with none.
Earlier on Saturday, Burnley stunned defending champions Chelsea 3-2 in first-round EPL action at the Stamford Bridge.
Huddersfield Town provisionally lead the standings on goal differential after their 3-0 away victory over Crystal Palace on Saturday.
The EPL 2017-18 kicked off in high-scoring fashion on Friday with Arsenal’s 4-3 win over Leicester City.
