Erling Haaland contributed to Phil Foden’s goal in Wednesday night’s draw with Brighton, bringing his season total of goal contributions in the Premier League to 44.
His eighth assist of a league season that has seen him score a club-record 36 goals, the Norwegian’s pass for our winger in the 25th minute.
With 44 goal involvements, he now has the same number as former Arsenal player Thierry Henry. The French forward had 20 assists and 24 goals during the 2002–03 campaign.
At Brentford on Sunday, City will wrap out its Premier League season, one in which it won its third league championship in three years. Haaland will be aiming to exceed Henry.
Guardiola changed a lot of players for the match against Roberto De Zerbi’s sixth-place team because the title had already been decided and the FA Cup and Champions League finals were still to come.
13 minutes later, a stunning goal from teenage Brighton forward Julio Enciso negated Foden’s score.
It put a stop to City’s 12-game winning streak, which helped us surpass Arsenal and win the Premier League.
With three more games left in the 2022–23 season, we do however increase our unbeaten streak across all competitions to 25 games.
The previous 11 meetings between the two teams resulted in 10 victories for City and one victory for the Seagulls. This was the first time a Premier League game between Brighton and City finished in a tie.
The two teams’ most recent league draw was in the previous Second Division in November 1984.
LOVES BRIGHTON FODEN
Against Brighton, Phil Foden has scored six league goals, which is twice as many as any other Premier League team.
However, despite doing so in our previous nine similar games, this was the first time City failed to win a Premier League game when Foden scored the game’s first goal.
The graphic below demonstrates how the objective was properly designed from the inside out.
Starting with a pass exchange between Rodrigo and John Stones, our two central defenders for the evening. Ilkay Gundogan received the ball before passing it to Riyad Mahrez, who found space to his left to send Haaland through behind the Brighton defence.
Haaland decided to give it to Foden rather than take it himself so that he could cut in on his right and get it past the goal line.
BRIGHTON’S GOAL SHOTS
Twenty shots from Brighton were directed against Stefan Ortega Moreno’s net.
In a top-flight game against a team coached by Pep Guardiola, only Wolves (21 shots against Man City in December 2019) and Atletico Madrid (22 shots against Barcelona in March 2009) have ever attempted more shots.
Only Enciso’s relentless piledriver found the back of the net since the German custodian was equal to the most of them.
In addition, two goals scored by the hosts were disallowed—one for offside against Danny Welbeck and the other for handball against Kaoru Mitoma.
However, Ortega Moreno should be extremely happy with the job he did that evening. In just 13 games this season, the 30-year-old has nine clean sheets to his credit.
The hosts also had two goals ruled out – one for offside against Danny Welbeck and another for handball against Kaoru Mitoma.
However, Ortega Moreno can be very pleased with his work on the night. The 30 year old has claimed nine clean sheets in just 13 starts this season.
He is yet to concede in the FA Cup, with the Blues now in the final.
The match as a whole ebbed and flowed in an entertaining fashion, with Brighton racking up the larger numbers in terms of shots and xG but City also creating a host of chances too.
The below graphic shows when each team was on top…
Brighton gained speed as the line veers farther to the left, while City gained ground as it veers further to the right.
It demonstrates three significant instances of City’s offensive threat, but more prolonged periods of lower-level threat from Brighton.
In the end, Brighton may have had a tiny edge in play in the final thirds as seen by their 20 shots to our 13 and xG of 2.37 to our 1.82.
WHAT LEWIS MEANT
Our selection for Man of the Match was Rico Lewis.
The 18-year-old was once more required to perform the hybrid full-back/midfield position, starting on the left and moving into the centre.
He had sway in a number of sectors, as the heat map below demonstrates.
He has had 75 touches overall and completed 50 accurate passes. He also completed three successful dribbles, demonstrating his confidence in carrying the ball in the direction of the opponent.
His main influence, though, was unrelated to possession. He and Mitoma of Brighton both recovered the ball 11 times during the game, which was the most of any player on the field.
Premier League Season Statistics
With 36 Premier League goals, Erling Haaland has eight more than his closest rival Harry Kane in the battle for the Golden Boot.
As the league’s top goal-creator thus far, Kevin De Bruyne has 16 assists, five more than Mo Salah and Bukayo Saka combined.
This season, City has 94 goals in the league, 11 more than Arsenal.
With 24,437 passes made over our 37 games, we have also made nearly 3000 more passes than anyone else. The second-most is held by Liverpool with 21,797.
