The Manchester City draw against Brighton & Hove Albion made it more difficult for the Cityzens to win the Premier League title this season. It means that Arsenal now lead them by five points with a match in hand.
The Manchester City draw with Brighton saw the Cityzens score through an Erling Haaland penalty in the first half, which completed the Erling Haaland 150 goals milestone, but Karou Mitoma equalised in the second half to snatch a point for the visitors.
What We Learned From the Recent Manchester City Draw
The Manchester City draw with Brighton came despite Pep Guardiola’s men dominating the proceedings. This was their third successive draw and once again highlighted an issue that has been plaguing them upfront.
Against Sunderland, the Cityzens had 67% ball possession and had 14 shots at the goal. However, only four of them were on target. In the Chelsea match, Manchester City had 58% ball possession and had 14 shots, of which only three were on target. Once again, in the Manchester City draw with Brighton, they had 59% ball-possession, but only seven of their 20 shots were on target.
This is a problem that has been highlighted by Manchester City draws in recent matches. They have the best No.9 in the world in Haaland, who has scored 26 goals this season already. Headlines now highlight ‘Erling Haaland 150 goals,’ a remarkable milestone that has come in his fourth season with Manchester City.
However, with most teams playing with a low block against them, there is always a forest of legs in the opposition box, which forces them to take shots from 20-25 yards out. That explains the large number of shots, with most of them being out of the target.
There are primarily two ways by which the Cityzens have been scoring their goals this season. Either Haaland is asserting his presence inside the box, or Foden is scoring with shots from its edge. Their opponents know that if they can block the central area inside the box, they can reduce the efficiency of Manchester City’s attacks.
Their could have another way to break through the opposition defence for the Cityzens. It is through their explosive winger, Jeremy Doku, cutting in from the left flank into the box. Doku’s runs would have allowed the Cityzens to stretch the opposition defence to create more space in the central areas.
However, Doku has not featured in most of the Cityzens’ recent matches. Playing Rayan Cherki and Bernardo Silva on the flanks gives Manchester City better retention of the ball, but it reduces the explosiveness in their attack that is needed to break open defences and create shooting space inside the box.
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Loads of Catching Up To Do
Man City have some distance to cover to catch up with Arsenal. They will have to hope that the Gunners start dropping points soon. Unless that happens, Mikel Arteta’s men remain the hot favourites to win the Premier League title.
Another Manchester City draw, this time against Brighton, is yet another match the Cityzens can take lessons from and go on to improve in their next outings.
In such a scenario, it remains to be seen whether Manchester City can reduce the gap with Arsenal in their upcoming matches.
Main Photo
Credit: IMAGO / Every Second Media
Recording Date: 07.01.2026
