Rulli saved Yasin Ayari’s penalty on Wednesday, and on Saturday his goal gave Brighton their first win at the Etihad
Bart Verbruggen made seven saves as Brighton beat Manchester City 1-0, the leaders’ second Premier League defeat in a row after seven straight wins.
Nov 1, 2026
On Wednesday night Yasin Ayari stepped up in a Carabao Cup shootout at the Etihad, and Gerónimo Rulli saved his penalty. Brighton went out. Three days later, at the same ground, Ayari scored the only goal of the Premier League game, and Brighton won at the Etihad for the first time.
The 1-0 win on Saturday was City’s second league defeat in a row, after they had won their first seven games. Enzo Maresca’s side are still top on 21 points, but only on goal difference from Arsenal, who have a game in hand. Brighton are third on 19, two points behind the pair of them.
An 11th-minute mistake
The goal came after 11 minutes. Matheus Nunes failed to cut out a low cross, Maxim De Cuyper got to the loose ball and laid it off, and Ayari finished from close range. It was his third league goal of the season, and for Fabian Hürzeler’s side it settled a game they then spent most of the afternoon defending.
Erling Haaland, Gianluigi Donnarumma and the others Maresca rested for the cup tie were all back in the starting line-up. It made little difference to City’s finishing.
Seven saves from Verbruggen
Bart Verbruggen made seven saves, and he needed most of them. He tipped an Iliman Ndiaye shot onto the crossbar early in the second half, after Ndiaye had already headed a good chance wide in the first. Nico O’Reilly headed narrowly wide late on, and Verbruggen still had to stop Jérémy Doku in stoppage time.
Verbruggen did not pretend it had been comfortable. “We go 1-0 up and then to hang tight, the last 30-40 minutes we completely lost control of the game,” he told Sky Sports.
Maresca said City had created enough to get something from the game, and complained about his side “conceding silly goals”. On Saturday one was enough, because they did not score any of their own.
A busy week for both
The table could look different by Sunday night. Arsenal play Liverpool at Anfield at 10pm IST, and a win would put them three points clear of City at the top.
City travel to RB Leipzig in the Champions League on Wednesday and then go to Nottingham Forest on Saturday, 7 November. Brighton have a Conference League trip to Getafe on Thursday before they host Brentford on Sunday, 8 November. After two meetings in three days, they will not see City again until 23 January.