Manchester City 1 Brighton 1: match reportMore points dropped for the Blues as title hopes begin to fade away with home draw to Brighton
Manchester City drew 1-1 with Brighton and Hove Albion midweek in the Premier League, suffering more dropped points. The Blues had already drawn their previous two league fixtures and needed a win ideally to keep the pressure on Arsenal, who are still to play this gameweek. Following injuries to Gvardiol and Dias, the lineup was a changed one. Donnarumma started in goal. Nunes, Khusanov, Alleyne, and Ake were the back four with O’Reilly being rested. Gonzalez started in defensive midfield ahead of Rodri with Reijnders and Bernardo also in midfield. Foden, Doku and Haaland were in attack with Cherki on the bench.
The match got off to an immediate shaky start for the home side with Brighton almost taking the lead in just the second minute with a cross in that found Pascal Gross, but the resulting header was saved by Donnarumma. A few minutes later, Brighton almost scored again when the ball was played through to Kadioglu, but Donnarumma came to City’s rescue once again.
After the early scare, City regained composure and began to have more control of the game. The Blues did not have any major chances but managed to find the breakthrough in the 38th minute, when Doku was brought down by Gomez. After a VAR review, a penalty was awarded to City. Haaland sent Verbruggen the wrong way to give the Blues the lead going into halftime.
In the second half, City continued with their possession and creating chances but could not do enough to find the net a second time. A Brighton error led to Bernardo having a clear shot on goal, but he hit the post and the Seagulls were spared. Yet again, City’s chances would go on to burden them.
In the 60th minute, Mitoma had the ball for Brighton on the edge of the box before moving inside and steering the ball into the bottom right corner to level the score with half an hour remaining. Brighton very almost went 2-1 up a few moments later, but the resulting final attack went off the outside of the post and out for a goal kick. A huge let off for City this time
Brighton yet again conceding possession in the box with Cherki picking it up and passing to Haaland who had a close range shot on goal but it was straight at Verbruggen and this made it two times that City had failed to punish the away side for two very poor defensive errors. City could not find a way through and the match ended 1-1.
City are now five points off Arsenal, a gap that will be increased to eight if Arsenal defeat Liverpool later this week. Three draws in a week may prove costly for the Blues. Regardless of what it means for the title, they know they mustn’t lose focus. City’s next match is against Exeter in the FA cup this weekend.
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