Maresca criticises errors after Manchester City lose 1-0 to Brighton

Enzo Maresca said Manchester City were again punished for individual mistakes after Matheus Nunes’ error allowed Yasin Ayari to score the winner in Saturday’s 1-0 Premier League defeat here.

The decisive goal followed Nunes, City’s right-back, failing to deal with a cross from Diego Gómez on the right, which allowed the ball to be returned across goal via Maxim De Cuyper and finished by Ayari. City’s recent defensive lapses were also highlighted by their 2-1 loss at Aston Villa, when Gianluigi Donnarumma allowed Nicolas Jackson’s long-range winner to squeeze under his body.

"Sometimes it happens," said Maresca. "Unfortunately, it is happening for our players, but it is part of football, it happens many times against us, we need to analyse, understand what we can do better and try to move on. "We are the second team in terms of scoring in the Premier League, but we are conceding silly goals that we can avoid and hopefully we can avoid in the next game. "It is a very similar feeling we had after the Aston Villa game – unfortunately we created enough to get some points but we didn’t score. At the moment it is like this. We did enough to deserve something. We need to move on and try to win games. For sure we are not happy."

Maresca added that he had not seen the free-kick awarded against Elliot Anderson and therefore could not judge whether the decision was fair.

Fabian Hürzeler said he was pleased his Brighton players responded after Wednesday’s Carabao Cup penalty shootout defeat to City, praising their reaction across the four days. "Every morning you can wake up and decide if you’re disappointed by something you cannot change or set the tone," he said. "Stand up and have the belief that you’ll have a different feeling. It was brutal [the cup defeat]. We promised ourselves that we won’t have the same feeling. "We want to be satisfied. We created energy, positivity, the next day. You need this. We saw Saturday as an opportunity to come back stronger. This was the approach and how the players stuck together and built the connection through the four days is really impressive."

Asked what was possible for Brighton this season, Hürzeler replied: "The only thing we’re focused on is that we are in a big process, a process of analysing the game. Then try to prepare for Getafe [on Thursday], a big challenge."

Brighton’s victory takes them to 19 points, two behind City; Manchester City remain top of the table ahead of Arsenal’s trip to Liverpool on Sunday.