By JACK GAUGHAN
Published: 16:50 EST, 7 January 2026 | Updated: 16:50 EST, 7 January 2026
Some deep irony was at play inside the Brighton technical area about half a second after Erling Haaland stroked Manchester City in front, assistant Jonas Scheuermann motioning to fourth official Tony Harrington that the refereeing team had been influenced by the crowd.
Flatter crowds than this are hard to remember at the Etihad Stadium, thousands of empty seats amid ongoing unease between regular match-going fans and the executives who organise ticketing. The huge North Stand expansion looms like a yawning question.
Despite two setbacks over the past week, City were bang in a title race heading into this and that the place was not full – and the noise or lack thereof giving off an apathetic vibe – does not bode well.
There have got to be discussions inside the offices over the road in the morning as to what they can do to fix this because the tourist element who will fill that new space and come to watch Haaland are not doing so on Wednesday nights in January against Brighton & Hove Albion.
The penalty that Scheuermann became so vexed about warmed the encounter up, gave Pep Guardiola a spark. Some needle to work with as it appeared increasingly unclear whether the jostling and aggravated Haaland and Jan Paul van Hecke were sworn enemies or frustrated lovers.
It’s becoming one of the modern-day grudges matches, this. The benches do not like each other. Guardiola was mocking Fabian Hurzeler long before the penalty, mimicking the Brighton boss to a sniggering backroom team as Bernardo Silva was awarded a foul. Guardiola requires something, or someone, to rail against and his opponents provided just that.
Man City dropped more points in the title race as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Brighton
Erling Haaland put City ahead but he was left frustrated as they failed to kick on after that
Guardiola and Fabian Hurzeler clashed on the touchline in what has become a grudge match
Man City 1-1 Brighton: MATCH FACTS
Man City (4-1-4-1): Donnarumma 7; Nunes 5.5 (Lewis 73, 6), Khusanov 7, Alleyne 7, Ake 6 (O’Reilly 73, 6); Gonzalez 5.5 (Rodri 64, 6); Silva 6, Foden 5 (Cherki 73, 6.5), Reijnders 6, Doku 7; Haaland 6
Manager: Pep Guardiola 6
Brighton (4-2-3-1): Verbruggen 7; Hinshelwood 7, Van Hecke 7.5, Dunk 6, De Cuyper 6; Ayari 6 (Milner 83), Gross 6; Kadioglu 6.5, Gomez 6 (Gruda 77), Mitoma 8 (Watson 83); Rutter 7 (Welbeck 77)
Manager: Fabian Hurzeler 7
Referee: Thomas Bramall 5
Again, there is sweet irony in Guardiola taking umbrage with a young prickly manager who likes to say his piece and do so with a fair amount of energy. It transpires that the German had never lost against Guardiola in the previous three meetings.
The benches couldn’t be separated as referee Thomas Bramall failed to award Jeremy Doku a penalty on being felled by Diego Gomez, bickering away as VAR did its thing. Guardiola was right in among it all, later amusingly playing the peacemaker on dragging substitute Rodri away from arguing.
Once cautioned by Bramall, City’s manager spent the next minute – before and after Haaland sent Bart Verbruggen the wrong way – chuntering in Hurzeler’s direction. Whatever he said when ball hit net was with a touch of malice.
Guardiola was rightly on edge. At 21, Abdukodir Khusanov was his senior central defender for the night. The Uzbek’s pace and bravery bailed City out on a couple of occasions, while debutant Max Alleyne – scouted as a Southampton academy prospect at the Under-15 Floodlit Cup five years ago - looked steady enough.
Certainly nothing either youngster could really do about Kaoru Mitoma’s equaliser, the winger afforded way too much space on the edge of the box to drive across Gianluigi Donnarumma 15 minutes into the second half. Incredibly, Gomez managed to shoot backwards with goal gaping.
The same old problem for City recently before all that though, a failure to capitalise on winning positions, as Bernardo Silva only struck a post when gifted a golden chance and Tijjani Reijnders saw a shot hacked off the line by Jack Hinshelwood. As a reminder: Antoine Semenyo was busy playing for Bournemouth against Tottenham as this all unfolded.
The crowd went quite again. Guardiola’s feud with Hurzeler subsided. Donnarumma passed an easy ball straight out of play. So did Rodri. The mind wandered to Arsenal hosting Liverpool on Thursday and the implications of the last seven days. No defeats but six points dropped by City, with injuries piling up and plenty of those featuring having been overplayed for the past two months.
That was all racing through minds and yet ought to have mattered not. The man with 150 City goals already was handed possession all alone, 10 yards from Verbruggen. Rayan Cherki fashioned it, found Haaland and those were the points right there.
Effectively a penalty, Verbruggen guessed right. Haaland hard and true but it would not slip under Brighton’s goalkeeper. As play continued, the Norwegian stood motionless around the centre circle.
Brighton and Hove AlbionPremier League