Match Report and Player Ratings: Brighton & Hove Albion 2-1 Manchester City (Premier League) | OneFootball

Manchester City suffered a fourth consecutive defeat in all competitions, as they were defeated 2-1 by Brighton & Hove Albion at the Amex Stadium.

In what was described as a “bad place” by Bernardo Silva earlier in the week, Manchester City were desperate to take three points on the south coast, but the efforts of the home side thwarted the blues as things got even darker for the champions.

It became a fourth consecutive defeat for Manchester City, which is a first in Pep Guardiola’s entire managerial career, as the reigning Champions once again made hard work for themselves heading into the final international break of the calendar year.

City controlled the tempo of the match early on without threatening Bart Verbruggen too much, until Mateo Kovacic slipped Erling Haaland through who made no mistake in front of goal giving City the lead midway through the first half.

A couple of half chances for both sides followed, with Verbruggen making a few tidy saves, while Josko Gvardiol made a key block at the other end, but Manchester City held their lead going into the break at the Amex.

The hosts thought they had equalised early in the second half when a lofted cross down the Brighton left landed on the head of Jack Hinshelwood, who placed his header straight at Ederson who parried the effort away.

A flurry of Brighton chances gave the home side some confidence, with Ederson once again coming up with a couple of big saves to keep the Blues in front with 70 minutes gone in the game.

However, with City under the cosh, Joao Pedro delivered a hammer blow to equalise for the Seagulls, pouncing on a scramble inside the penalty area, shooting into the ground and over Ederson to tee up a dramatic finale.

With momentum swinging in favour of the hosts, they made no mistake of punishing the champions, with Matt O’Riley giving Brighton a massive lead with only seven minutes to play in the contest.

Despite a couple of half chances for the blues, Manchester City couldn’t turn it around, as they suffered a fourth consecutive defeat in all competitions for the first time since the Stuart Pearce days in 2006.

With that being said, here is how we rated the Manchester City players’ performances in the 2-1 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion at the Amex on Saturday evening!

Player Ratings

Starting XI

Ederson – 7.5

Made a number of crucial saves in the second half and was unfortunate to lose his clean sheet status.

Kyle Walker – 5

Walker seems to have lost a yard of pace this season, with wingers catching on to his age and punishing him emphatically. Several key chances for Brighton came down the full-back’s side tonight.

Jahmai Simpson-Pusey – 6.5

A second successive start for the youngster who had a tidy performance overall.

Josko Gvardiol – 6.5

A rare appearance in the centre of defence for Josko Gvardiol, who looked comfortable overall.

Rico Lewis – 6

Not the finest outing of his Manchester City career, with the teenager understandably looking leggy. Slow to react to Brighton’s second.

Mateo Kovacic – 8

Delivered the assist for Erling Haaland’s goal and looked sharp in midfield overall, running proceedings for a large portion of the game.

Ilkay Gundogan – 7

A decent showing from the German before being replaced by Bernardo Silva in the second half.

Phil Foden – 7

It feels as though Phil Foden isn’t quite at his best yet this season for one reason or another. Manchester City will need to rely on the excellence Foden shown last season if they are to pick their feet up again in this campaign.

Savinho – 7.5

The Brazilian winger shown glimpses of quality in the first half, including a guilt edged chance which was saved by Bart Verbruggen, but the winger couldn’t find the killer edge while on the pitch.

Erling Haaland – 7.5

A hard-fought opening goal gave the blues a deserved lead, courtesy of Erling Haaland who had a solid afternoon.

Matheus Nunes – 7

Despite not contributing directly it was another good performance from Matheus Nunes, who proved his worth in the line-up tonight.

Substitutes

Bernardo Silva – 6

Didn’t make any notable contributions during his 20-minute cameo.

Kevin De Bruyne – 6

Similar to Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne didn’t have enough time to make his presence felt.