Man City's best and worst players in statement thrashing of Brighton

Manchester City breezed past Brighton & Hove Albion on Thursday night to cut Arsenal's lead at the top of the Premier League back to a single point.

Pep Guardiola's side are seeking an unprecedented fourth consecutive league title and have their destiny firmly in their own hands at this stage, holding a game in hand on the Gunners.

City wasted little time getting ahead thanks to a rare headed goal from Kevin De Bruyne, the improvised dive finding its way past Jason Steele in the home goal. Phil Foden then managed a first half brace to kill the game as a contest before the interval, with Julian Alvarez later adding a fourth.

Nobody even seemed to be that bothered that Erling Haaland wasn't playing.

These are City's best and worst players from the game according to 's player ratings.

At 23 years of age, Foden is now onto 51 Premier League goals after smashing through the half century milestone in this game. There was a big element of fortune in his first of the evening, thanks to a soft free-kick taking a big deflection. But his second was pure class, curling effortlessly in.

Talking of milestones, Walker has played nearly 400 times in the Premier League since his debut in the competition back in 2010. But this was the first time that the England right-back has registered two assists in the same top flight game. He set up De Bruyne's opener and the fourth for Alvarez.

On another night, Gvardiol might have given away a penalty for his challenge on Joao Pedro midway through the second half. City were already 4-0 up at that stage so it wouldn't have changed the course of the game or the result, but it was a little clumsy and avoidable.

Rather like Gvardiol, Rodri was the villain for Brighton players and fans when contact with Pascal