The visitors took advantage of a defensive mistake on 12 minutes to score what proved to be the only goal of the game and in doing so gain revenge for Wednesday’s Carabao Cup loss to the Blues.
City dominated the majority of the game but failed to test Brighton keeper Verbruggen often enough on a disappointing afternoon at the Etihad.
The Game in 250 words
Brighton began by winning possession high and pinning City back in the early stages without creating any clear chances.
But the visitors were gifted the lead on 11 minutes when a low cross was missed by Matheus Nunes, the ball hit De Cuyper’s shin and bounced into the path of Ayari who had a simple tap-in from six yards.
That setback woke the Blues up who went on to dominate the rest of the first-half without ever testing goalkeeper Verbruggen, though Iliman Ndiaye came desperately close as he headed Elliot Anderson’s cross inches wide.
City had at least three penalty appeals for handball turned down by referee Craig Pawson in a what was a largely frustrating first period.
Brighton passed up a guilt-edged chance to double the Seagulls’ lead just after the restart as De Cuyper found himself with just Donnarumma to beat from a low cross, but he blazed over.
Just past the hour a lovely pass from second-half sub Rayan Cherki sent Nunes clear in the box but his low shot was well saved by Verbruggen.
The Blues laid siege for most of the second period - as we had done in the first - but the longer the game went on, the more it seemed it was going to be one of those days - and when Nico O’Reilly saw a header towards an empty net go the wrong side of the post on 90 minutes, the chance or rescuing a point was lost.
TEAMS
CITY: Donnarumma, Nunes, Khusanov, Dias (C), Gvardiol (Allan 80), Bouaddi (Cherki 55), Anderson, Fernández (O’Reilly 65), Ndiaye (Foden 80), Doku, Haaland
SUBS: Rulli, Guéhi, Kovačić, Reis, Lewis
BRIGHTON: Verbruggen, Costinha, Dunk (C), Vuskovic, Boscagli (Hadjam 64), Chema (Wieffer 65), Gross, Ayari, Gomez (Rutter 84), De Cuyper (Hinshelwood 73), Kostoulas (Yalcouye 72)
SUBS: Steele, , Minteh, Svoboda, O’Riley,
Attendance: 60,503
Maresca reaction
“It’s very similar feeling than we had after Aston Villa game. Unfortunately, we created enough to get some points but we didn’t score.
“In this moment, it’s like this. We did enough to deserve something but we need to move on and try to win games.
“We are second in terms of goals scored in the Premier League so that means we are scoring.
“We are conceding silly goals and we can avoid that. Hopefully we can avoid that in the next game.”
ANDERSON reaction
“We created a lot of chances. Disappointing to lose. Didn’t manage to put chances away, on another day we put three or four away, We have to bounce back for the Champions League game in a couple of days.
“Three in midfield, man for man and we had the wingers staying high and wide. We did have the width but we didn’t manage to get the chances away which is unfortunate but we’ll have to work on it.
“We’re all disappointed. Not good enough, we don’t want to be losing games but we’ve got to stick together. We’ve had a great start to the season, two disappointing results now but we have to stick together.”
| 1 |
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Manchester City
Man City
|
9 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 20 | 10 | 10 | 21 |
|
| 2 |
|
Arsenal
Arsenal
|
8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 5 | 8 | 21 |
|
| 3 |
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Brighton and Hove Albion
Brighton
|
9 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 24 | 7 | 17 | 19 |
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What it means...
City stay top of the Premier League, but will drop to second if Arsenal avoid defeat at Liverpool on Sunday.
Brighton move within two points of the top two teams with their first ever victory away to the Blues.
What’s next?
City will look to bounce back quickly as we take on Red Bull Leipzig in the Champions League on Wednesday.
The game in Germany starts at 20:00 (UK) on 4 November.
Then we travel to Nottingham Forest next Saturday, & November with our Premier League fixture kicking off at 17:30 (UK).
