Man City 0-1 Brighton and Poyet's Champions League test
Brightonhave now beaten Arsenal and Manchester City in the same Premier League season, and Gus Poyet's message is that results like those don't decide who the Champions League contenders are. The games that do, he says, are against the teams at the bottom.
Man City 0-1 Brighton at the Etihad on Saturday was settled by Yasin Ayari's 11th-minute goal. It was Brighton's first win at the ground, and it lifted Fabian Hurzeler 's side to 19 points from nine games, third in the table and two behind City and Arsenal.
Poyet, who managed Brighton between 2009 and 2013, has set a fair test. The table says they have passed it so far.
The bigger danger is one his warning doesn't mention: the seven league games that look so inviting are wrapped around four Conference League ties. Man City 0-1 Brighton: the two men denied on Wednesday decide it Three days earlier, on the same pitch, Gerónimo Rulli saved from both Ayari and Lewis Dunk as City won the Carabao Cup shootout 4-3.
On Saturday those two made the winner. Dunk's free-kick released Diego Gomez down the right, Matheus Nunes failed to cut out the low cross, the ball came back off Maxim De Cuyper and Ayari finished from close range.
City built 1.92 expected goals to Brighton's 1.00, and Bart Verbruggen made seven saves, the best of them a sprawling stop down to his right from a fierce Nunes shot in the second half. He also tipped a powerful Iliman Ndiaye effort onto the post.
That made Brighton the first visiting side to keep a Premier League clean sheet at the Etihad since Tottenham in August 2025, and handed Enzo Maresca a second straight league defeat after seven wins in a row. Hurzeler credited his goalkeeper with "spreading belief".
Hurzeler said:"It's important to have this mindset and to spread it around the environment we work in, and belief is key to winning these types of games. He added:"You have to be brilliant at the basics and everyone was contributing.
Verbruggen preferred to share it around, saying after the game:"It was a joint effort from everyone. What did Gus Poyet actually say about Brighton?"