The China Mail - Man City title bid damaged by Brighton draw despite Haaland's 150th goal

Erling Haaland put City ahead with a first half penalty at the Etihad Stadium, but the striker's 150th goal for the club wasn't enough to earn a vital victory.

Hampered by mounting injury problems, City were well below their best and Kaoru Mitoma made them pay with a second half equaliser.

Pep Guardiola's second-placed side are five points behind leaders Arsenal, who host champions Liverpool in their game in hand on Thursday.

A victory for the Gunners would open up a massive eight-point lead in the title race.

City have come back from similar deficits to take the title in the Guardiola era, but on current form they look destined to finish behind Arsenal.

After damaging draws against Sunderland and Chelsea, City have gone three games without a victory while Arsenal are on a three-match winning streak.

Even Haaland's 150th goal in 173 matches in all competitions since joining from Borussia Dortmund in 2022 wasn't enough to inspire sloppy City.

The Norway striker's 26th goal in all competitions this term ended his three-game drought but it was hardly his best performances as several chances were squandered.

City have a lengthy list of absentees, with Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias joining John Stones on the sidelines after suffering injuries at the weekend.

Omar Marmoush, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Savinho, Oscar Bobb and Mateo Kovacic are also missing through fitness problems and international duty.

- Laboured City -

City are reportedly close to signing Bournemouth winger Antoine Semenyo and have also been linked with Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi.

But before new recruits can arrive to help ease his woes, Guardiola was forced to hand a debut to teenage centre-back Max Alleyne.

Alleyne, 20, partnered Abdukodir Khusanov at the heart of a makeshift defence that struggled to impress from the moment Gianluigi Donnarumma nearly gifted Brighton an early lead when he almost let the ball roll into his own net.

Moments later, Donnarumma made a fine save to keep out Pascal Gross's header before Ferdi Kadioglu shot straight at the Italian after racing through on goal.

City were labouring, yet they still took the lead in the 41st minute.

Jeremy Doku's penalty appeal was initially rejected after his run was halted by Diego Gomez's clear trip, but VAR overturned the decision and Haaland fired home for his latest landmark goal.

City midfielder Tijjani Reijnders had a shot cleared off the line by Gomez on the stroke of half-time.

Bernardo Silva hit the outside of the post from a golden opportunity to double City's advantage soon after the interval.

But Guardiola's men lost the lead in sloppy fashion after 60 minutes.

Mitoma took possession 20 yards from goal and advanced unhindered by City midfielder Nico Gonzalez, giving him time and space to lash a superb low strike past Donnarumma.

Guardiola responded by sending on Rodri for the chastened Gonzalez, but Gomez should have put Brighton ahead when he contrived to miscue Mitoma's pass from virtually on the goal-line.

Not only were City creaky at the back, they were profligate in attack as well.

Haaland's header was cleared off the line by Kadioglu before the City star failed to beat Bart Verbruggen from 12 yards.

As if that wasn't bad enough for Guardiola, Rayan Cherki wasted two chances to save the day with a pair of woeful misses in the closing moments.

J.Thompson--ThChM