Three things we learned – Manchester City 1-1 Brighton and Hove Albion - European Football

Manchester City dropped more points in frustrating circumstances as they were held by Brighton and Hove Albion in the Premier League.

City were ahead at half time thanks to Erling Haaland’s penalty, but Karou Mitoma’s excellent equaliser meant the Seagulls left the Etihad Stadium with a point.

The Blues missed several glaring second half chances, most notably from Bernardo Silva and Haaland when City were presented with the ball in the Brighton penalty area on two separate occasions.

Pep Guardiola’s side are now five points behind league leaders Arsenal, who have a game in hand over the Blues against Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium.

City are in cup action for their next two fixtures, hosting Exeter City in the FA Cup and facing Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup semi final first leg, before facing managerless Manchester United at Old Trafford in their next Premier League game.

Here are three things we learned as City drew yet again:

Alleyne/Khusanov is a promising partnership

There was a surprise in the City lineup as Max Alleyne was thrown straight in at the deep end with a start against Brighton, allowing Nathan Ake to shift to left back and rewarding Nico O’Reilly with a long awaited rest.

The 20-year-old only trained once with the first team having been recalled from his loan spell at Watford, but got the chance and impressed in his first senior City appearance.

He was particularly good on the ball – you could tell he was educated in football at City. Other than one occasion, he was composed and competent in possession, moving the ball forward and between the lines as well as just keeping it simple like most centre backs do.

Defensively there were a couple of signs, particularly early on, that he could be both outpaced and outstrengthened, but that is understandable and also where Abdukodir Khusanov comes in.

The Uzbekistan international, only 21 himself, is one of the fastest players in the Premier League and also doesn’t get shrugged off the ball easily.

He’s improving aerially and needs to continue taking responsibility next to an even more inexperienced player in Alleyne next to him, but I think he was the best player against Brighton and until Ruben Dias returns from injury or a new player, such as Marc Guehi, signs, this should be City’s centre half partnership going forward.

Semenyo can’t come soon enough

City are desperately lacking quality up front right now.

Four without an open play goal for Haaland; he tucked his penalty away nicely but should have scored more, and doesn’t really pull his weight enough bar scoring goals (which he is obviously the best player in the world at doing.)

Phil Foden was very poor, as he has been for the last few games. Like many around him, he’s having to play a lot with options on the bench sparse so he can’t be held entirely to blame for that, though he certainly deserved to come off when he did.

Rayan Cherki was bright off the bench and is brilliant at times, but can also go missing. Tijjani Reijnders needs time to adapt, Omar Marmoush is on international duty and doesn’t really fit the system, Bernardo Silva isn’t quite the player he once was, Jeremy Doku still blows hot and cold despite taking an obvious step up this season and Oscar Bobb and Savinho are injured, as well as not being good enough in most fans’ opinions.

But step forward Antoine Semenyo.

As City fans were filing out of a freezing cold Etihad Stadium, the Ghanaian forward bagged a stunning last minute winner in his final performance for Bournemouth, ahead of him completing a medical in Manchester earlier today ahead of his much awaited move to City.

Semenyo is the third top scorer in the Premier League this season behind just Haaland and Brentford’s Igor Thiago, and will offer plenty of freshness, pace and quality to the City frontline.

He’s set to be involved against Exeter on Saturday (assuming he gets announced tomorrow) and will then be good to go against Newcastle and Manchester United, and City need him to make an instant impact to get them out of this current rut.

It’s not as bad as last season

However, if you look back to 12 months ago, City are a much, much better team than they were then.

They’re 11 matches unbeaten, which is a complete contrast to last year and can’t be overlooked despite the last three games being disappointing draws.

The energy seems to be there too compared to last season – all three of these games could’ve been won by City on another day but as it was, they just couldn’t finish off their chances. If they had done, then it would have been enough.

They need to step up another level in order to get over the line and they’re still three signings or so from becoming a great team again. But signs are there and City aren’t slipping back into bad habits from last season just yet.