Maresca calls for fewer errors after Manchester City suffer successive league defeats

Enzo Maresca has called on Manchester City to cut out costly individual mistakes after a 1-0 home defeat by Brighton followed their 2-1 loss at Aston Villa. According to Jamie Jackson's reporting for the Guardian from the Etihad Stadium, the City manager said his side needed to understand the errors behind the goals they were conceding and improve their response.

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Maresca's assessment came after Matheus Nunes failed to intercept Diego Gómez's cross from the right. Maxim De Cuyper then returned the ball across goal for Yasin Ayari to score Brighton's winner. The Guardian linked that defensive lapse with City's previous defeat, when goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma allowed Nicolas Jackson's long-range winning shot to pass beneath him at Villa.

The manager argued that City's attacking output was not being matched by sufficient care at the other end. He pointed to their position as the Premier League's second-highest-scoring team and said avoidable goals were undermining that work. Maresca also believed City had created enough opportunities against Brighton to take something from the match, describing his reaction as similar to the disappointment following the Villa game.

Despite the consecutive defeats, City remained league leaders ahead of Arsenal's Sunday visit to Liverpool. Brighton moved to 19 points, two behind City. Maresca said he had not seen the free-kick decision against Elliot Anderson and therefore did not offer a judgement on whether it was correct. His stated priorities were to analyse what had gone wrong and return to winning matches.

For Brighton manager Fabian Hürzeler, the victory also represented a response to Wednesday's Carabao Cup elimination on penalties against City. In comments reported by the Guardian, he said the players had been determined not to experience the same disappointment again. Hürzeler credited their response during the intervening days, praising the positive attitude and togetherness they developed before returning to face City in the league.

Hürzeler did not set a target for Brighton's season when asked what they could achieve. Instead, he kept his attention on reviewing the City performance and preparing for Thursday's match against Getafe, which he described as a significant challenge. The immediate reward was a league victory over the opponents who had ended Brighton's cup involvement just days earlier.