'NEW-LOOK CITY NOT IN TITLE TALK'

It's a miserable start to the campaign for Guardiola as City are rocked by Brighton

- BY PATRICK AUSTEN-HARDY

THERE are troubles in Manchester on the blue side as well as the red.

Pep Guardiola was shocked on the South Coast as Brighton consigned Manchester City to their second consecutive Premier League defeat.

While the focus last week was on Ruben Amorim’s shoddy United, the Citizens have problems on their side of the fence.

When Erling Haaland scored on his 100th Premier League appearance, City looked well set to recover from their limp 2-0 home defeat to Tottenham last week. The Norwegian’ close-range finish after a clever pass from Omar Marmoush put City in control as Brighton struggled to lay a glove on the visitors.

With Rodri returning to the starting lineup alongside summer signing Tijjani Reijnders, City dominated the ball and could have finished the game before halftime.

It was more of the same in the opening 15 minutes of the second period, until Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler unleashed James Milner, Brajan Gruda, Georginio Rutter and Yasin Ayari from the bench.

Three minutes later, Lewis Dunk’s attempt to play the ball back across goal struck the arm of Matheus Nunes, (circle) leaving referee Darren England with no choice but to point to the penalty spot.

Milner emphatically smashed his penalty into the bottom corner, turning the tide drastically towards Brighton.