City Watch: Seagulls get their revenge

It was certainly a mixed week for Manchester City, with Brighton providing two very different challenges in the space of four days.

Wednesday night brought a dramatic penalty shootout victory in the Carabao Cup, keeping our hopes of retaining the trophy alive, but Saturday’s Premier League meeting ended in disappointment as the Seagulls left the Etihad with all three points. One step forward, one step back, and unfortunately the latter has left us with a few more questions to answer.

The first meeting was always likely to be a tight affair, particularly with both managers expected to rotate their squads and give some of their more senior players a rest ahead of the league fixture. That was certainly the case, with a number of familiar faces missing from the starting line ups, but there was still plenty of quality on show and neither side looked particularly interested in making it an easy evening for the other.

Brighton took the lead through Malick Yalcouyé just after the half hour mark, before Mateo Kovačić brought City level ten minutes later with a lovely low finish from outside the box. Georginio Rutter restored Brighton’s advantage shortly after the restart, leaving City with work to do once again. It was Vitor Reis who came to the rescue, getting on the end of Rayan Cherki’s free-kick to make it 2-2 and send the tie to penalties.

The shootout was every bit as nervy as you would expect, with both sides having opportunities to take control. Kovačić missed for City, while Brighton’s Yasin Ayari also failed to convert. Gerónimo Rulli proved to be the difference, saving from both Ayari and Lewis Dunk, before Cherki stepped up and calmly dispatched the winning penalty to send us through 4-3.

It was not necessarily a performance that will live long in the memory, but cup football is about getting through, and that is exactly what we did. We now have Bradford City to look forward to in the quarter finals, with the League One side making the trip to the Etihad. On paper, it is a very favourable draw, although Arsenal supporters will probably remind us that lower league opposition should never be taken for granted after their own rather embarrassing exit to Fleetwood Town on penalties. I am sure there were a few City fans enjoying that one.

Unfortunately, the second meeting with Brighton did not go quite so well. The Seagulls arrived at the Etihad having already travelled north to face Liverpool at Anfield the previous weekend, before making the journey to Manchester twice in the space of four days. That is a demanding schedule, and you might have expected the travelling and fixture congestion to take its toll. If anything, though, Brighton looked every bit as energetic and organised as they had on Wednesday.

They took the lead inside 11 minutes, and it was a goal that summed up City’s defensive problems rather too neatly. Matheus Nunes completely misjudged a low cross, seemingly sending himself to Mars in the process, allowing the ball to ricochet into the path of Yasin Ayari, who had the simple task of finding the empty net. It was amateur defending, and another example of the kind of cheap goal we have been giving away far too regularly this season.

From that point onwards, Brighton were excellent. They sat compactly, defended with real discipline and made it incredibly difficult for City to find any space in the final third. We had plenty of possession and pushed men forward in search of an equaliser, but there was very little to show for it. Iliman Ndiaye came close, Rayan Cherki tried to inject some creativity after coming off the bench, and Nico O’Reilly somehow missed a late opportunity that would have rescued a point. But the reality is that we could probably have played that game all night and still struggled to score.

There were certainly grounds for frustration with the officials, too. City had several penalty appeals for handball turned down, including incidents involving Chema Andrés and Lewis Dunk, which will no doubt be debated by supporters for some time. However, while those decisions were frustrating, they cannot become an excuse for the result. We lost because we were not good enough in front of goal, and Brighton deserve enormous credit for the way they defended.

The defeat leaves us three points behind Arsenal in the Premier League, and while nobody wants to see back to back league losses, there is no reason to start pressing the panic button just yet. Aston Villa and Brighton are both very good sides, and dropping points against them is not the end of the world. What Maresca cannot afford, however, is to allow the same problems to continue unchecked. The defensive frailties that were exposed at Villa Park were once again on show against Brighton, and the manager needs to find a solution quickly.

Our attention now turns to the Champions League and Wednesday night’s trip to RB Leipzig. By the time this column reaches readers, we will already know how City have got on in Germany, but it is an important fixture given the need to respond after the disappointing league results. There is also a familiar face in the opposition dugout, with former City defender Martín Demichelis now in charge of Leipzig. He knows the club well, having made more than 100 appearances during his time in Manchester, and this will be a particularly special occasion for him.

After that, it is back to Premier League action with a trip to Nottingham Forest on Saturday, the final league fixture before the last international break of the year. It would be nice to head into that break with a positive result and a reminder of what this side is capable of.

There is no need to overreact to two defeats, but there is certainly a need to learn from them. The attacking quality is there, the squad has depth, and Maresca has already shown he can get this team playing some excellent football. Now it is time to make sure we are just as difficult to score against as we are to defend against. Otherwise, we risk turning a promising season into an unnecessarily difficult one.