Manchester City must cut out ‘easy goals’, says Maresca after Brighton loss

Enzo Maresca says Manchester City need to eliminate avoidable defensive mistakes after they were beaten 1-0 at home by Brighton in the ninth round of the Premier League.

The result left City having conceded 10 goals in their opening nine league matches this season, twice as many as Arsenal. Maresca believes his side deserved more from the game but accepts they must respond quickly.

“It is a little strange. I have the same feeling I had after the away game against Aston Villa,” the Italian said in comments published by BBC. “We did enough to deserve a better result, but we have to move on and try to win matches.”

City created a number of attacking opportunities but were unable to convert them.

“We made a good number of attacking attempts,” Maresca added. “Sometimes you have to be more accurate in front of goal and score, but it is important that we are creating chances.”

He said he had no complaints about the attitude of his players, who continued to compete until the final whistle.

“Honestly, we did everything,” Maresca said. “The players’ attitude was good and I have no criticism of that or of the performance. They fought until the end and hopefully we will have better luck next time.”

Defensive errors concern Maresca

Mistakes at the back have begun to accumulate. Marc Guehi, who was left out of the team against Brighton, and Gianluigi Donnarumma were responsible for some errors in the match against Aston Villa, while Matheus Nunes made the mistake that led to Brighton’s decisive moment.

Asked why such individual errors were occurring, Maresca replied: “Why? It happens sometimes.”

“Unfortunately, these mistakes happen from our players, but I think it is part of the game and part of football,” he said. “These are things that happen against us quite often. We have to analyse what we can improve and then try to move on.”

Maresca also explained his midfield selection, saying he had expected a physically demanding contest after studying Brighton’s games and approach.

“I thought starting with three players who are physically strong was a good idea,” he said. “I was also thinking about using the final 20 or 30 minutes to make changes that would give the team fresh energy, bringing on Rayan Cherki, Allan and Phil Foden.”

Erling Haaland was not given enough clear opportunities, while Eliman Ndiaye had a subdued performance and missed City’s best chance in each half.

Maresca nevertheless pointed to his side’s attacking record. “At the moment, I think we are also the second-best team in the Premier League for goals scored,” he said.

“That means we are scoring goals, but at the moment we are conceding easy goals that we could have avoided. Hopefully we can prevent that in the next match.”

The listed schedule includes RB Leipzig in the Champions League on 04 November 2026, Manchester City against Getafe in the Conference League on 05 November 2026, and Brighton on the same date.