Brighton moved to third place, within two points of the Premier League leaders, after a 1-0 win at Manchester City gave them their first away league victory against City. It was Brighton’s first win away at City on their 18th attempt.
The decisive goal followed a free-kick awarded after Elliot Anderson’s challenge on Yasin Ayari, a decision that appeared to have been wrongly given.
Four days after losing to City on penalties in the Carabao Cup at the same ground, Brighton returned to the Etihad Stadium and held their nerve. They had twice led in that earlier match.
Ayari turned the disputed free-kick into the match’s defining moment in the 11th minute. Lewis Dunk moved the ball to Maxim De Cuyper on the right. Nunes missed his clearance from De Cuyper’s delivery, and Ayari finished from close range into an empty goal, with Gianluigi Donnarumma stranded.
City manager Enzo Maresca had made ten changes from the side that started the Carabao Cup match, with Ayyoub Bouaddi the sole player retained. The 10-time English champions pushed for an immediate response.
Iliman Ndiaye glanced a header wide of the far post in the 22nd minute. City kept coming after Brighton took their 1-0 lead into half-time, while Bart Verbruggen made seven saves to protect the clean sheet.
Ndiaye came closest in the 52nd minute, when his fierce effort struck the crossbar. Jack Hinshelwood then hit the side netting late on for Brighton, as City continued searching for the breakthrough that never arrived.
Verbruggen said: 'Unbelievable feeling. We go 1-0 up and then to hang tight, the last 30-40 minutes we completely lost control of the game.'
City finished with 21 shots, only six of them on target, their highest number of attempts without scoring in a Premier League home match since November 2024. They failed to score at home in the league for the first time in 23 games, since a 2-0 defeat to Spurs in August 2025. Erling Haaland’s run of scoring in seven successive Premier League games also ended.
Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler said: "We expected a game where we had to suffer, facing one of the best teams in the world."
Brighton have now won five of their past six Premier League matches and kept clean sheets in each of those five wins. Their total of 6 clean sheets is the highest in the league this season.
For City, this was a second straight Premier League defeat and their first run of consecutive league losses since August 2025 under Maresca. Maresca said his side "created enough to get some points but we didn't score."
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