PAMedia/dpa
London
Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler believes Manchester City remain the best team in the world despite their recent poor run of form.
Pep Guardiola’s side travel to the Amex Stadium on Saturday on the back of defeats at Tottenham in the League Cup, Bournemouth in the Premier League and Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League.
It is just the fourth time Guardiola has suffered three straight losses in his managerial career, with three of the four unwanted streaks coming with City and the other at Bayern Munich in 2015.
"Against every team there are opportunities. Especially this season, the league is so equal. It’s very, very competitive,” said Hurzeler, whose own side have also gone three games without a win.
"Everyone can beat everyone and we see it every weekend. That’s why we always see an opportunity. We always see a chance.
"Of course, we have a lot of respect. City is, for me, still the best team in the world, they have the best manager in the world.
"But in the end it’s a game and we play at home and we want to continue our process and we see this as a next opportunity to challenge the establishment.” Erling Haaland has failed to score in his last two starts and missed a number of good chances against Sporting in particular, but Hurzeler was equally unmoved by the Norway striker’s relatively lean period.
"It’s difficult to defend him in one-against-one situations, it’s always like a togetherness of defending against him,” Hurzeler added.
"Don’t let him go one against one, don’t let him be one against one, especially in the box defending. He’s an unbelievable striker. He’s a goal machine.
"Every striker has bad periods and bad phases. Every striker gets judged by the goals. He’s still one of the best strikers in the league and in the world.
"We shouldn’t focus on the bad period for him, we should focus on defending him
together.”