Manchester City drop points for the 3rd consecutive Premier League match
The Cityzens were held 1-1 against Brighton at the Etihad Stadium
Erling Haaland's opener was cancelled by Kaoru Mitoma's equalizer
Manchester City's title hopes took a further blow as they drew a third straight Premier League game, with Brighton fighting back to earn a 1-1 draw at the Etihad Stadium.
Pep Guardiola's side, who handed 20-year-old centre-back Max Alleyne his debut amid a defensive injury crisis, looked nervy from the off and were fortunate to see Pascal Gross and Ferdi Kadioglu pass up early chances.
City went in front through an Erling Haaland penalty in the 41st minute, though, with the kick awarded following a VAR review after Diego Gomez felled Jeremy Doku.
They also saw Bernardo Silva strike the post following a dire giveaway from Yasin Ayari just 34 seconds into the second half, though Brighton refused to go away quietly.
The Seagulls got level on the hour mark as Kaoru Mitoma drilled into the far corner from the edge of the area, having been picked out by Ayari's clever pass on the counter-attack.
And Fabian Hurzeler's team should have completed the turnaround 10 minutes later, only for Gomez to completely miscue what should have been a simple tap-in from Mitoma's centre.
City laid siege to Brighton's goal in the closing stages but could not find a winner and were booed off, with Haaland firing straight at Bart Verbruggen from close range and Rayan Cherki powering wide of the right post.
They could now fall eight points behind Arsenal when the Gunners host Liverpool on Thursday, with Manchester United their next Premier League opponents on January 17.
Data Debrief: Landmarks For Erling Haaland and James Milner
City have now dropped six points from losing positions in the last seven days, and nine in the Premier League overall this season. Over half of those dropped points have come against Brighton, who also rallied to win the reverse fixture 2-1 in August.
This is the second straight campaign in which City have dropped five points from winning positions against the Seagulls.
Guardiola's men were sitting pretty at half-time, courtesy of Haaland scoring the 35,000th goal in Premier League history, which came four years and 131 days after the 30,000th goal in the competition, by Burnley's Chris Wood against Leeds United in August 2021.
It was Haaland's 150th goal for City in all competitions, too, on his 173rd appearance for the club. That is 28 games fewer than any other player has required to reach 150 goals for Premier League clubs since 1992-93, with Alan Shearer requiring 201.
But it was not enough to get City over the line, despite them firing off 22 shots with an expected goals (xG) value of 2.35, compared to six shots and 0.81 xG for Brighton.
There was also a landmark for former City midfielder James Milner, who was introduced by Brighton seven minutes from time and became only the fifth outfielder to make a Premier League appearance aged 40 or older, after Gordon Strachan, Teddy Sheringham, Kevin Phillips and Ryan Giggs.
