Manchester City fell to defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon
Enzo Maresca looks on as Manchester City lose to Brighton
Enzo Maresca looks on as Manchester City lose to Brighton(Image: Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)
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Manchester City had been near faultless since the Community Shield disaster. Enzo Maresca could not have asked for a better start to his return to the Etihad Stadium with seven wins in a row in the Premier League, plus victories over Porto and AEK Athens in the Champions League. Even the defeat to Paris Saint-Germain gave reason for optimism for the Blues.
However, if Maresca was looking for a reason to remain humble, he will find it with an unwanted trait his side have picked up. After 11 minutes against Brighton on Saturday, the visitors took the lead against City. A dangerous ball fell to Yasin Ayari who could not miss from close range.
City have conceded three goals in the first 15 minutes of Premier League matches so far this campaign. Only Ipswich Town (five) and Crystal Palace (five) have conceded more in the Premier League this season.
Against Sunderland, they were pegged back by Brian Brobbey moments after Enzo Fernandez gave them the lead. At Aston Villa, a mistake by Marc Guehi saw Nicolas Jackson strike on six minutes. Ayari's opener was the third time in five Premier League matches that City have conceded inside 15 minutes.
This worrying trend is not new. The Community Shield defeat saw Arsenal take the lead in the opening minute. Back then, Maresca clearly saw it as a learning curve in Cardiff for his team. "I think a big part of the game was in the first goal we conceded," he said. "Unfortunately after 30 seconds we conceded the first one. I think the reaction was good, before they scored the second goal we had three or four chances to score and to draw the game.
"Unfortunately we missed the chances and then after the second goal it became more difficult. In general I’m always concerned, even when we win games so imagine how that [when] we didn’t win the game.
"It’s just the beginning, we have many things that we need to do better. I think the reaction was good after conceding the first goal and now try to reset and analyse the game and think from Tuesday about the next game."
What will worry Maresca is that City are failing to learn their lesson. These early goals are setting the tone for matches and have seen the Blues come up empty-handed in their last two Premier League games.
Maresca will believe it is early days, and it is - the City boss is only four months into the job. But City need to start switching on at the start of matches before this becomes something a lot more serious for the Blues.
If they want to be picking up trophies this season, City need to be tighter in the opening 15 minutes. This carelessness at the beginning of games is starting to cost them.