Champions Manchester City’s 12-game Premier League winning streak came to an end on Wednesday when they were beaten to a 1-1 draw at sixth-place Brighton and Hove Albion.
Phil Foden’s goal in the 25th minute gave treble-chasing City, who had just clinched their fifth championship in six seasons, the lead despite playing with less vigor than normal.
Enciso scored a long-range piledriver in the 38th minute to restore parity for the hosts after Brighton had qualified for Europe for the first time with some energetic play.
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Before the break, Brighton’s Danny Welbeck had a goal disallowed, and late in the game, Erling Haaland thought he had given City the lead but was penalized for shirt-pulling after a VAR review.
It was City’s first losing streak since the beginning of February. With one league match remaining on Sunday at Brentford, City has 89 points, eight more than Arsenal. Aston Villa, now in seventh place, is unable to reach Brighton’s total of 62.
Although City manager Pep Guardiola had already won another championship and the FA Cup and Champions League finals were still to come, his desire to win had not dimmed.
He was enraged when Haaland’s late goal was disallowed, and his outburst earned him a yellow card.
However, losing would have been unfair to Brighton, who had the best season in club history.
With 20 goal efforts to City’s 13, seven of them were successful, Brighton kept up with City throughout a fun match.
Haaland’s rampaging forward play allowed City to still have a strong offensive presence despite their attention now being divided between two of the most important games in club history.
The Brighton goalkeeper Jason Steele denied the Norwegian, who appeared to be on the verge of scoring as he went through one-on-one.
He was set free the next time he went through by Riyad Mahrez’s pass, and he went around Steele to pick out Foden, whose strike reached the bottom corner.
Prior to Enciso’s goal, a teenager from Paraguay, Kaoru Mitoma, had an equalizer disallowed.
He picked up the ball in an open area about 25 meters from the goal and fired a right-foot rocket past Stefan Ortega’s diving body into the top corner of the net.
A precise offside call then prevented Welbeck from scoring after he had already struck the goal frame with a free kick.
Brighton also had plenty of opportunities in the second half, but Haaland appeared to have scored his 53rd goal of the year when he headed in Cole Palmer’s cross, but it was obvious that he had grabbed Levi Colwill’s shirt as the ball crossed the line.
With just one goal in his last six games, Haaland’s goal pace has significantly dropped. The supporters of City will be hoping he has a few more in reserve for the crucial two weeks that lie ahead.