Erling Haaland returned to scoring form with his 150th Manchester City goal – but his side’s Premier League title challenge is falling apart, with Brighton holding them to a third consecutive draw.
Pep Guardiola’s men have endured an underwhelming start to the year, with poor results and injuries to key players handing the initiative to Arsenal, who could go eight points clear at the top if they beat Liverpool on Thursday.
Brighton were looking to capitalise on City’s makeshift backline and Pascal Gross found room to thump a header at goal, which was clawed out by Gianluigi Donnarumma, with the German unable to convert the follow-up.
Georginio Rutter then released Ferdi Kadioglu with a pass from the halfway line, but the Turkey international could only shoot straight at the towering Italian goalkeeper Donnarumma.
The Seagulls were exploiting gaps in the opposition defence – Rutter ran clear himself to bear down on goal but was denied by Abdukodir Khusanov’s brilliant, last-ditch challenge.
But Brighton failed to take most of their chances and paid for that as City took a 41st-minute lead.
Star man Haaland converted a penalty and scored the Premier League’s 35,000th goal since its 1992 inception, after Jeremy Doku was brought down in the box by Diego Gomez – the referee only awarded the spot-kick after reviewing it on the pitchside monitor.
Captain Bernardo Silva clipped the post in the second half as the hosts looked to stretch their lead, but Fabian Hurzeler’s men hit back through Kaoru Mitoma’s lovely finish from the edge of the area.
Gomez incredibly missed when picked out by Mitoma a couple of yards from goal, and both sides had to settle for a point.
