Striker Erling Haaland scored his 150th goal in his career in the English Premier League, but Manchester City failed to win the match against Brighton and Hove Albion. In the duel at home at the Etihad Stadium, Thursday, January 8, 2026 WIB, Man City was only able to play a draw 1-1.
Man City started 2026 with an unsatisfactory start. In the first three matches during January, Man City has not won a victory.
All the matches ended in a draw and Man City seemed to lose sharpness. When facing Sunderland on January 2, 2026, which ended the festival period, Man City was unable to score and drew 0-0.
Furthermore, Pep Guardiola's troops host Chelsea who are in internal conflict after the dismissal of manager Enzo Maresca. However, Man City could not take advantage of that advantage and failed to get full points after being equalized by the Blues 1-1.
Finally, Man City started a brilliant start when visiting Brighton's home. Haaland again showed his sharpness by scoring from the penalty spot. However, the advantage could not be maintained by The Cityzen.
Japan national team player Kaoru Mitoma thwarted Man City's victory. His goal in the second half silenced the home fans and Brighton successfully stole points at the Etihad.
The result indeed makes Man City unbeaten for the last 11 matches. However, the match record at the beginning of the new year is still disappointing because Man City failed to approach the leaders of the Arsenal standings.
With 43 points, Man City is still five points behind Arsenal. The point gap will widen if Arsenal beats Liverpool in the big match at the Emirates, Friday, January 9, 2026 WIB.
Meanwhile, Brighton themselves are more comfortable in the middle. Fabian Hurzeler's team stayed in 11th place with 29 points. The same as Everton, but Brighton is ahead of the goal difference.
"It's not about whether we deserve to win the game," Guardiola said as quoted by the club's website. "The result is still the result. I'm not someone who says that what we did was not good enough. We got one point and that's what happened. The situation in the second half was the same as when we faced Sunderland and Chelsea. We even got fewer chances but there were opportunities that failed to be maximized," he said again.
"I'm just satisfied with the way we played. Many of them who have rarely played before and can perform. I'm happy with this," said Guardiola.
In that match, Guardiola still couldn't field the best squad. Even Man City lost two defenders Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias who had not recovered from injuries. Because John Stones is still wrestling with an injury, Guardiola put on a less familiar duet, Abdukodir Khusanov and debutant Max Alleyne.
Changes in the back sector are also a weak point of Man City which Brighton wants to maximize. It is recorded that Pascal Gross who rejoined Brighton had threatened the home goal. However, his header could be deflected by goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. Furthermore, the goalkeeper of the Italian national team thwarted the opportunity from Ferdi Kadioglu.
Man City itself didn't take long to get out of the pressure and managed to dominate the game. A good opportunity was obtained by Bernardo Silva who was then thwarted by goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen. Then Haaland's header was still wide.
The match heated up and was marked by high tension when Brighton midfielder Diego Gomez brought down Jeremy Doku in the penalty box. The incident was left to referee Thomas Bramall who made the Man City side protest. Even Rodri, who was sitting on the bench, was the most aggressive to complain to the referee. Guardiola was even given a yellow card for arguing with Hurzeler.
Bramall finally reviewed the incident via VAR. The result was that Gomez was found to have committed a foul and the referee pointed to the white spot. Haaland completed the penalty execution well. This is Haaland's 150th goal in 173 matches with Man City since being recruited from Borussia Dortmund in 2022.
The 1-0 lead made Man City more aggressive in pressing the Seagulls' defense. Midfielder Tijjani Reijnders almost increased the lead. But his efforts could be swept away by Brighton's defenders.
In the second half, Man City did not change the game and continued to dominate. Only, Brighton was able to give a fight so that the match was a bit of a draw. Silva had the opportunity to increase the lead when he took advantage of Yasin Ayari's pass. But his shot was still narrowly off to the left of the goal.
Despite the pressure, Brighton was able to take advantage of the gap when attacking. It started with a cross from Gomez outside the penalty area that was received by Mitoma.
The Japanese midfielder, who had been out for two months due to injury, showed off his ball-carrying skills before firing a powerful shot into the bottom left corner of the net, out of reach of Donnarumma.
The goal that was created in the 60th minute changed the score to 1-1. Man City actually still dominated and tried to add a goal.
Only their efforts did not bear fruit. Including Haaland's header which could be blocked by Fergi Kadioglu, a midfielder who came down to cover the defense. There was no additional goal from both teams. The 1-1 draw score lasted until the end of the match.
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