Brighton & Hove Albion 1 Manchester City 4
For a few seconds Albion held the attention of the football world when on 27 minutes Glenn Murray headed in Anthony Knockaert’s corner.
But less than 60 seconds later City were level as Sergio Aguero slotted in the equaliser at Maty Ryan’s near post.
From the moment Aymeric Laporte headed City into the lead eight minutes later, the Manchester team were Premier League Champions.
Lewis Dunk forced Ederson to push over a Lewis Dunk free kick deep into first half injury time, so deep in fact there wasn’t even time to take the corner.
City toyed with Albion as the second half started. Rhiyad Mahrez eventually angled the ball past Ryan to put City into a two-goal lead and an indication for the production staff to get the presentation stage ready.
The Seagulls failed to trouble Ederson or Vincent Kompany et al and, when awarded a free kick, Bernardo Silva, Aguero and Ilkay Gundogan stood over the ball and Gundogan lofted it over the wall and Ryan for 4-1.
On around 80 minutes there was a magnificent moment as Bruno was substituted. The retiring Albion captain received a reception and applause from every man on the pitch, the City fans and of course the Albion faithful, who rose to a man.
Albion substitutes Juergen Locadia and Florin Andone almost certainly had fewer than two touches in 15 minutes and with seven minutes left City resorted to August training camp levels.
At the end there were scenes that Brighton and Hove Albion or perhaps Brighton and Hove will probably never see again as Manchester City were presented with the Premier League Trophy in front of the south stand and their adoring fans including Liam Gallagher.
Albion, despite not winning a Premier League match since 9 March, can look forward to another season in the world’s greatest league and can hopefully again find three worse teams than themselves.
