Manchester City’s losing streak continues, Brighton achieves comeback victory | Premier League

Pep Guardiola didn’t seem to know what had hit him. As Brighton players and fans wildly celebrated Matt O’Riley’s winning goal, the Manchester City manager must have been reflecting on an experience he had never had in almost 20 years of coaching.

The fourth consecutive defeat for the first time in his career will have been particularly difficult to bear given how much his side had dominated Brighton in the first half. But a stunning turnaround for Fabian Hürzeler’s side was initiated by João Pedro, who canceled out Erling Haaland’s opener before setting up fellow substitute O’Riley five minutes later.

It was particularly pleasing for the midfielder to make his Premier League debut after being injured in August just nine minutes into his Brighton career following his summer move from Celtic. How O’Riley relished his moment allowing the home fans to serenade the beleaguered City manager with chants of “You’ll be sacked in the morning” as they edged towards a memorable win.

Guardiola had promised his side would learn from their mistakes against Sporting in midweek and he caused a surprise by retaining teenager Jahmai Simpson-Pusey in an untested central defensive partnership alongside Josko Gvardiol. Everything seemed to be going well until João Pedro came on as a substitute 25 minutes before the end of the game and, together with Hürzeler’s other substitutes, turned the game around.

The Brighton manager had described his first meeting with the reigning Premier League champions as an opportunity for his side to challenge the establishment and he was proud of the way they responded to being forced in the first 45 minutes were to chase shadows.

The second-half substitution of Carlos Baleba changed the game as City fell further and further behind and Guardiola may have feared the worst. He left the pitch in an exchange of words with Jan Paul van Hecke after the Brighton defender clashed with Haaland in stoppage time as City desperately hoped for an equaliser.

The visitors had dominated the first game as the dangerous Savinho repeatedly found space behind Pervis Estupiñán. Bart Verbruggen spread himself wide to prevent him from scoring the opener after a shot into the penalty area, before Haaland was uncharacteristically stubborn from Phil Foden’s free-kick and only managed to clear the ball out of danger. But City looked much more like themselves and it seemed only a matter of time before they scored.

The goal came promptly after 23 minutes when Mateo Kovacic’s nice equalizer in midfield created space for the perfect through ball for Haaland, who shot into the goal from close range after Verbruggen’s first save. The Brighton goalkeeper was lucky that the Norwegian’s next attempt, after being set up by Foden, came off the heel and bounced off the post before Haaland headed over the resulting corner.

Brighton’s only shot on goal was a snap shot from Kaoru Mitoma that went harmlessly wide and they had no answer as City had more than 70% possession. Kovacic was next to force Verbruggen into action from distance, but the hosts could well have won a penalty when Gvardiol’s hand blocked Danny Welbeck’s shot on the ground after Walker misjudged a bouncing ball. The Brighton striker wasn’t happy and only managed to fire a free-kick wide of Ederson’s post after Rico Lewis received a booking for bringing him down.

Hürzeler said in a television interview during half-time that his team had to show more courage and get out of the starting blocks. Mitoma could only direct a soft header towards goal from Georgino Rutter’s cross before Jack Hinshelwood should have done better from Estupiñán’s cross at the end of a flowing move initiated by Mitoma.

City suddenly looked nervous, but they responded with another attack. Haaland almost became Savinho’s provider if Estupiñán hadn’t made a desperate save at the back post. Rutter’s final involvement was to head another dangerous ball over the crossbar into City’s penalty area as Hürzeler threw to João Pedro and Brajan Gruda and went into full attack mode. But the Brazilian misplaced his lines as he was passed towards goal and was unable to force Ederson into another save.

Kevin De Bruyne was introduced for his first appearance since mid-September as City tried to regain control, but Guardiola’s fears grew with each Brighton attack. He was right to look concerned as they deflected Mitoma’s cross horribly and João Pedro pounced on the loose ball to equalize. There was no doubt about the quality of the winning goal as a one-two between Welbeck and João Pedro allowed O’Riley to grab the headlines.

Nine minutes of stoppage time saw Gvardiol come closest to salvaging a point for City, but there was no turning back as City and Guardiola were left to ponder the unthinkable.