{"id":3175,"date":"2026-01-08T04:28:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T04:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/?p=3175"},"modified":"2026-01-13T07:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T07:17:18","slug":"three-games-three-points-manchester-city-left-frustrated-as-mitoma-stuns-the-etihad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/three-games-three-points-manchester-city-left-frustrated-as-mitoma-stuns-the-etihad\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Games, Three Points: Manchester City Left Frustrated as Mitoma Stuns the Etihad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester City\u2019s stuttering start to 2026 continued on Wednesday as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Brighton at the Etihad Stadium. It\u2019s now three games without a win for Pep Guardiola\u2019s side\u2014following a goalless stalemate with Sunderland and a 1-1 draw against Chelsea.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>City took the lead just before half-time when Erling Haaland converted from the penalty spot\u2014his 150th goal for the club in only 173 appearances, a staggering return for the Norwegian striker.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">35,000 &#8211; Erling Haaland has scored the 35,000th <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/premierleague?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@premierleague<\/a> goal, four years and 131 days after the 30,000th by Burnley&#8217;s Chris Wood against Leeds United in August 2021. Landmark. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Lhl9oK9Oix\">pic.twitter.com\/Lhl9oK9Oix<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OptaJoe\/status\/2008995900438532219?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 7, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Brighton, however, came out firing after the break. Their persistence paid off on the hour mark when Kaoru Mitoma produced a precise finish into the bottom-right corner from the edge of the area, silencing the home crowd.<\/p>\n<p>Guardiola admitted frustration after the game:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe result is what it is. It\u2019s similar to the last two games. We played fantastically, I\u2019m pleased with many things, but we missed a lot. It\u2019s a fair result because scoring goals is something you have to do\u2014and we didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>City had chances to win it late on. Haaland and Rayan Cherki both squandered golden opportunities, while Bernardo Silva struck the post moments before Mitoma\u2019s equalizer.<\/p>\n<p>The draw leaves City five points adrift of leaders Arsenal, a gap that could stretch to eight if the Gunners beat the defending champions,\u00a0 Liverpool at at the Emirates on Thursday. It\u2019s a worrying trend for The Citizens as 2026 begins with three straight draws.<\/p>\n<p>Jeremy Doku summed up the mood:<br \/>\n\u201cOn another day we score. It\u2019s similar to the other two games. We need to take our chances\u2014if we do, it\u2019s a different story. These three games we win. Then we get anxious when time goes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester City\u2019s stuttering start to 2026 continued on Wednesday as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Brighton at the Etihad Stadium. It\u2019s now three games without a win for Pep Guardiola\u2019s side\u2014following a goalless stalemate with Sunderland and a 1-1 draw against Chelsea. City took the lead just before half-time when Erling Haaland &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/three-games-three-points-manchester-city-left-frustrated-as-mitoma-stuns-the-etihad\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Three Games, Three Points: Manchester City Left Frustrated as Mitoma Stuns the Etihad<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,5],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-3175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","category-top-stories","tag-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3175"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3178,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3175\/revisions\/3178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}