Man City have set an unwanted new record for Pep Guardiola with cagey Brighton stalemate, writes JACK GAUGHAN – as Abdukodir Khusanov’s own goal sees hosts drop more points

Nerves, they’re contagious. Something has undoubtedly changed around Manchester City in the two years since the Treble, something beyond injuries and an ageing squad. A multitude of issues all at once leaves players and supporters yearning for this season to end.

The aura has vanished, nine games to navigate and finish off the misery. No Pep Guardiola team has ever conceded this number of goals in a Premier League season before after Brighton’s two took the tally to 40. Opponents prey on defensive vulnerabilities; the attackers can’t execute final balls with enough regularity either. Not a great mix.

But more than that is this strange inertia sweeping through the Etihad Stadium. A stadium with empty seats in almost every block 24 hours before what was a massive game in the hunt for Champions League qualification. Some were going for £70. One Portuguese fan turned up with a sign begging Bernardo Silva to return home to Benfica. It’s that sort of place at the moment.

Not just a pricing problem, not just a fan apathy problem and not just a day tripping problem but there are forces working against each other to make afternoons like this very testing indeed. 

A flat atmosphere for most of the day – briefly livening up in places – when City needed something guttural behind them. Equally, the crowd need something to get behind.

‘Everybody felt the pressure,’ Guardiola conceded. ‘We have to play better and after they [the crowd] will be back. In the good moments they are there but they feel it when it is not good. Everybody knows it.’ 

Erling Haaland opened the scoring for City by converted a penalty kick in the 11th minute

Omar Marmoush also found the net for City, firing home from outside of the box in the first half

Guardiola did suggest that City’s spirit was significantly better than last week’s defeat at Nottingham Forest. 

But with another shrug of a result, one that could have swung in either direction, City are fifth knowing that Newcastle United leapfrog them by winning a game in hand. They’ve been given a lifeline with the likelihood of fifth being enough. To not make that would be astonishing.

It’s worth pointing out that several top clubs have fallen far harder when struggling but this all just lacks purpose. City ought to have been bathing in another Erling Haaland record, his early penalty making him the quickest man ever to reach a 100th league goal involvement.

And yet they ended it thankful that Carlos Baleba – a midfielder City have watched in recent months – spooned a major late chance to pinch the points for Brighton to go ahead of last year’s champions. Fabian Hurzeler, in animated disagreement with Guardiola on the touchline, had Brighton drilled perfectly to exploit City’s deficiencies but the first equaliser was a real gift.

Pervis Estupinan sent a 25-yard free kick towards Stefan Ortega’s right-hand post, the goalkeeper both gambling off his left foot and then guessing that the effort was going wide, wandering over nonchalantly, only to find it clinking off the frame.

Haphazard again, the only way Guardiola watches his team concede goals these days. Kaoru Mitoma had earlier seen a goal disallowed for fouling Ortega at the end of a breezy – and easy – move stemming from Savinho’s refusal to follow Omar Marmoush’s pressing in the visitors’ third.

Marmoush was busy again, the thumping strike six minutes before the break, kissing the post, to give City another lead spoke to his explosiveness. Much like the opener, Nico Gonzalez’s pressure in midfield proved key, Ilkay Gundogan shovelling on to the Egyptian, who wellied in without looking back. He semi-aggressively attempted to cajole the crowd in celebration.

Savinho had spurned two golden chances by this point, with more question marks around his end product. Yanbuka Minteh and Joao Pedro squandered decent chances presented to them by tired defending. ‘We lost two points,’ Hurzeler said. ‘We were the better team in the second half.’

Pervis Estupinan scored Brighton’s first goal of Saturday’s game with a well-placed free-kick 

City manager Pep Guardiola looked exasperated at times as his side struggled to find top form

Brighton remain just one point behind City in the Premier League, with nine games remaining

They levelled again three minutes into that after hospitality from their hosts. Abdukodir Khusanov was sluggish in getting out from a corner, meaning Adam Webster’s header towards danger saw Jack Hinshelwood spin to shoot, cannoning off the Uzbek and wrong-footing Ortega. It trickled over with the same slow motion tragedy as much of this season.

Gonzalez’s header hit a post – City created enough – before the threat the other way almost sucker punched them. Hinshelwood slammed into the side netting when he ought to have squared before the moment Brighton had the game in their hands.

Baleba ran 70 yards upfield to keep up with a counter attack. Ran on to Pedro’s centre perfectly. Ortega’s goal gaped and the shot ballooned over.