Manchester City cemented their status as title favourites with victory over Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.The Citizens were facing a promoted side yet Chris Houghton’s men put up quite the fight at the Falmer Stadium. Ederson was very nearly deprived of a debut cleansheet after an early second-half surge from the Seagulls.Nevertheless, Pep Guardiola’s men eventually prevailed. David Silva cut open the home side’s defence to find Sergio Aguero who found the net in the 70th minute.

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The nail in the coffin arrived just five minutes later too when Lewis Dunk headed a Fernandinho cross into his own net. It’s fair to say it wasn’t a desirable Premier League debut for the 25-year-old.

One man who didn’t cut Dunk any slack was Benjamin Mendy.

City’s new signing and the most expensive defender in history wasn’t available for the opening fixture due to a thigh injury. However, he immediately took to Twitter when his new side’s lead swiftly doubled.

You can see his comment below:

Savage. Jovial, but savage.

And while, of course, the ex-Monaco man meant it jokingly, it certainly earned him some unwanted publicity and criticism. Most notably, he was subject to disapproval from BT Sport pundits Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard.

Gerrard stated: "To be honest I don't like to see that, there's no need for it. There will be a time this season when Mendy makes a mistake and he's going to be wide open to criticism.”

His ex-England international concurred: "I agree with Stevie there. Why don't you just have a few seconds to double check that that's the right thing to send?”

It prompted Mendy to backtrack a little and post the following apologetic tweet:

All the aforementioned drama considered, you would think City would be far from impressed with their new signing. As per the Mirror, though, an insider at the club has sought to refute this.

“Benjamin has done absolutely nothing wrong and we see no reason to speak to him,” he explained.

“He enjoys having a social media presence to communicate with fans and we would encourage that.

“It was nothing more than a gentle joke and the reaction to it – particularly from some TV pundits - has been way over the top.”

It’s not exactly the reaction you would expect from the club but when you’ve forked out £52 million for a player’s services, it’s best not to get on their wrong side.

As long as Mendy knows the Twitter storm he faces if he scores a headed own goal himself – Lewis, get rehearsing your comeback tweet.

Do you think Benjamin Mendy was out of order with his tweet? Let us know by leaving a comment below.