Manchester City have lost four games in a row in all competitions for the first time in Pep Guardiola’s managerial career.
City were beaten 2-1 by a Brighton side who came back from a 1-0 deficit after an Erling Haaland opener 23 minutes into the game at the Amex Stadium.
Joao Pedro equalised for Brighton after 78 minutes before Matt O’Riley scored just five minutes later to hand Fabian Hurzeler’s side their fifth win of the season.
It puts Pep Guardiola’s side five points behind Liverpool who won again this past weekend as they beat Aston Villa 2-0 at Anfield on Saturday.
Speaking on the Rest is Football podcast, former Premier League striker Alan Shearer was critical of City in the game saying that they didn’t deserve anything from the defeat against Brighton.
He said: “They didn’t deserve anything from the game yesterday, Brighton battered them in the second half. They were so open, it was like chance after chance after chance, I know they’re missing Rodri who is a huge part to how they play, but you can’t be that bad when you’re missing that player.
“You get the goal from Erling Haaland and you’re thinking they’re doing alright, but in the second half they just folded didn’t they, they played so open and Brighton got the couple of goals but they could have had another three or four at least.
“It’s a good time for Man City to have the international break, they need it badly.”
Manchester City face three tough league games after the international break
Pep Guardiola will hope that his City side can improve over the international break as their fixtures don’t get any easier when they return with their first game being a home match against Tottenham Hotspur who they lost to in the Carabao Cup two weeks ago.
Furtermore, they then face a trip to Anfield to play against Arne Slot’s Liverpool who have only lost one game this season and have won nine out of 11 games in the Premier League, it could be a very tough test for City especially if the likes of Jack Grealish, Jeremy Doku and John Stones remain injured.
After that, Guardiola’s side will host Nottingham Forest who are currently sat fifth in the Premier League and have emerged as an outside candidate to make one of the European places come the end of the season.
