{"id":358208,"date":"2026-01-08T03:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T03:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/358208\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T03:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T03:09:07","slug":"brightons-kaoru-mitoma-punishes-manchester-city-as-title-bid-falters-again-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/358208\/","title":{"rendered":"Brighton\u2019s Kaoru Mitoma punishes Manchester City as title bid falters again | Premier League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pep Guardiola believes team spirit will help Manchester City get through a difficult period, but more than camaraderie alone will be required on this evidence. City endured a third consecutive draw<\/a> to leave the leaders Arsenal, who have a game in hand, five points ahead and currently without a title challenger.<\/p>\n

An Erling Haaland penalty gave City a platform they were unable to build on, failing to convert a plethora of chances in the second half. City let Brighton come back into the match and deservedly depart with a point thanks to Kaoru Mitoma.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love a lot, many, many good things but we didn\u2019t score goals,\u201d Guardiola said. \u201cSo many clear chances [missed], and it\u2019s not just one player, two players, it\u2019s all the people up front who played a lot. To score goals is part of your job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid a hectic schedule and with absentees aplenty, a sluggish and rhythmless City struggled to threaten a well-disciplined Brighton defence prior to the break. There was often a line of eight yellow shirts on the edge of the box, forcing City to work hard to assess the few gaps. Set pieces looked a promising route with Max Alleyne miscuing a header at the front post and Bernardo Silva firing straight at Bart Verbruggen from corners.<\/p>\n

Injuries to R\u00faben Dias and Josko Gvardiol forced Alleyne to cut short a loan at Watford on Monday, and he was thrust into the starting lineup for a debut alongside Abdukodir Khusanov. The centre-backs acquitted themselves well against a progressive Brighton side, offering a positive on a difficult night.<\/p>\n

Brighton tried to punish City\u2019s back four on the counterattack. Ferdi Kadioglu went through one\u2011on\u2011one, only to be repelled by Gianluigi Donnarumma, while Georginio Rutter was stopped at the last second thanks to the speed of Khusanov, who is not much more experienced than his partner Alleyne.<\/p>\n

Erling Haaland gave Manchester City the lead but wasted a good late chance to win the game. Photograph: Adam Vaughan\/EPA<\/p>\n

Haaland\u2019s penalty was a rare highlight in a first half of struggle for City. J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku, City\u2019s most dangerous attacking threat won it because his feet were too quick for Diego G\u00f3mez, and the striker sent Verbruggen the wrong way to collect his 150th goal for the club. The spot-kick created a brief distraction from the volatile disagreement between Guardiola and Fabian H\u00fcrzeler on the touchline, earning the former a caution for complaining that it took the referee a look at the monitor before awarding it.<\/p>\n

If the opening 45 minutes were about Brighton\u2019s defensive mentality, that was almost forgotten seconds after the break when a confused Yasin Ayari played the ball straight to Silva eight yards out. He shimmed and sent Verbruggen the wrong way but clipped the outside of a post when doubling the lead looked more likely, initiating a long list of failed conversions. It always felt like a second was needed for City but they could only muster six shots on target from 22 attempts. \u201cWe are not pleased how we gave away the chances, I think we did too many easy mistakes; too many mistakes where we invited them to score goals,\u201d H\u00fcrzeler said.<\/p>\n

At the other end it was too simple for Mitoma, who was allowed space on the edge of the box and a simple route to cut inside, before finding the corner from 18 yards. \u201cWe all know that he can make the difference in the game, that he can be a gamechanger,\u201d H\u00fcrzeler said of Mitoma. \u201cHe\u2019s still not at 100%, but we need to push him to 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antoine Semenyo will be a City player by the end of the week, providing energy, physicality, skill and ability to score important goals. It will be a boost with Savinho ruled out for up to two months \u2013 another option for Guardiola, who now also has a chance to prepare long-throw routines. That variety will give City\u2019s opponents more food for thought.<\/p>\n

Once the equaliser went in, Brighton enjoyed a spell of dominance. They should have been ahead when Matheus Nunes missed a simple header; Mitoma capitalised and sent his cross for G\u00f3mez to tap home from a few yards out. The unmarked Paraguayan, however, conspired to send the ball behind him.<\/p>\n

Guardiola sent on the remainder of his senior substitutes to inject much-needed energy. The prospect of Rayan Cherki joining the main event brought an element of fear to Brighton but he fired over from promising position. Haaland had a header cleared off the line and should have done far better after another Ayari error, this time passing to Cherki inside the box. It was laid off to Haaland in space but he wasted the chance of victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola believes team spirit will help Manchester City get through a difficult period, but more than camaraderie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-358208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}