Manchester City lost 1-0 at home to Brighton in the Premier League on Saturday, suffering a second straight league defeat. Yasin Ayari scored in the 11th minute, and the result left Enzo Maresca frustrated by individual errors.
How the goal decided the game
Ayari scored the winner in the 11th minute after Matheus Nunes miscued a clearance and the ball went to him. Bart Verbruggen made a number of saves for Brighton, and one of them tipped an effort from Iliman Ndiaye on to the woodwork.
Recent results for both sides
It was Manchester City's second successive Premier League defeat after a 2-1 league loss to Aston Villa. Before those two defeats, City had won their opening seven league games of the campaign. Brighton had lost on penalties to Manchester City in the League Cup at the Etihad on Wednesday, when Ayari missed from the spot in the decisive shoot-out. Fabian Hurzeler had said he wanted to avenge Brighton's defeat to City in the Carabao Cup.
Table picture
Brighton's win was their first away win over Manchester City and moved them to within two points of top spot. Manchester City started the weekend top of the table. Arsenal can go top if they avoid losing at Liverpool on Sunday.
Reaction and what comes next
Maresca, the Manchester City manager, said: "Sometimes it happens. Unfortunately it is happening for our players, but I think it is part of the game, part of football. In the last two or three games it has happened many times against us."
He added: "We need to analyse and understand what we can do better and try to move on."
Maresca also said: "It's a very similar feeling that we had after the Aston Villa game. Unfortunately, we created enough to get some points but we didn't score. In this moment, it's like this."
City midfielder Elliot Anderson said: "We had so many chances and on another day we put them away and we win the game. It’s unlucky, to be honest."
He added: "It wasn’t for a lack of fight and commitment. We gave everything. We were on top for large periods of the game and it looked very promising to get a goal, but it just didn’t come."
Manchester City now travel to Germany to face Leipzig in the Champions League on Tuesday. Anderson said: "We win together, we lose together. We’ve got to improve together as well and we’ll look to do that in the next few days in the Champions League."
Hurzeler said: "We are in a big process - a process where we go home now and analyse the game and take the right things out of it. Then we try to prepare for Getafe . That's another big challenge for us in the Conference League, a different game. We only try to go from game to game."
