By Ethan Aspinall, Sun 31 August 2025 19:39
Brighton & Hove Albion 2 Manchester City 1: match reportBlues slump to consecutive defeats in day to forget away at Brighton
Manchester City faced Brighton and Hove Albion away on Sunday looking to bounce back from their 2-0 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur the week before. The team was slightly altered from the one that started the last game – Trafford kept his place in goal despite his mistake the week prior. Stones and Ait Nouri remained in defence whereas Dias was dropped from the starting lineup in favour of Kushanov as was Lewis ahead of Nunes. Rodri made his first premier league start of the season alongside Reijnders and Silva in midfield. The front three comprised of Marmoush, Bobb, and Haaland once again.
Brighton made a bright start to the first half with a strong press to test the City defence. There was a brief appeal for a potential red card for Reijnders, who appeared to catch Gomez on the follow through for a pass, but the clash was a mere collision. The first big chance for City came in 9 minutes as the ball was threaded through from Marmoush to Haaland through on goal, but he scuffed his shot straight into the hands of Verbruggen. A few moments later, Mitoma had a chance to put Brighton ahead however, his shot towards the bottom corner was tipped away by Trafford. Another close chance came for City as Ait Nouri’s cross found Haaland who headed it targeting the right corner but was sharply stopped by Verbruggen.
Eventually, the deadlock was broken in the 34th minute by City as a good move in the box found a pass from Marmoush to Haaland in the back of the net to finally put the Blues ahead – they led 1-0 at the break.
Similarly to the Tottenham game, the second half was far below par for City. In the first fifteen minutes, they retained relative control of the game and had the opportunity to double their lead, most notably from a Marmoush ball to Bobb at the far post but he couldn’t quite connect with it and the shot was wide. The trouble for City came in the 61st minute when Brighton made four substitutions – they started to push back with more intent and test the Blues defence. In the 67th minute, a Brighton free kick found its way to Dunk who volleyed the ball straight at Nunes’s arms held to his head. Without much hesitation, a penalty was awarded. Former City and Liverpool player James Milner, stepped up to take the spot kick, sent Trafford the wrong way and levelled the game for the Seagulls. Once again, the Blues were facing the consequences of not seeing the game out.
From the equaliser, Brighton were now well in control of the game and were willing to come away with all 3 points. City never had many chances to salvage anything apart from another chance for Haaland, who headed the ball over the bar from a corner. In the 89th minute, an attempted clearance from Stones found Rutter straight away, who passed the ball through to Mitoma who fed Gruda on the edge of the box. Dribbling past the defence, he put the ball in the back of the net. Brighton led 2-1 in what was ultimately the final meaningful act of the game. City suffer back-to-back losses and claim only 3 points from 3 games in their opening league fixtures of the season.
Once again, problems from last season appear not to be rectified for the Blues. Teams continue to find out their tactics, changes aren’t proving to have much of an impact and there appears to be an absence in hunger for the Blues, a problem that remains evident from last season. They face an equally struggling United side in the derby in two weeks at home following the international break. Guardiola continues to carry the burden of salvaging a method for City to return to winning ways and not ship any more costly points and fade into the abyss in contrast to the title winning juggernaut they so very recently were under him.
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