Brighton & Hove Albion came from a goal behind to defeat Manchester City 2-1 thanks to a superbly taken 89th-minute winner from Brajan Gruda.
Gruda was one of four substitutes introduced on the hour mark by Fabian Hurzeler at Amex Stadium, where Erling Haaland had put City ahead with his 88th Premier League goal on his 100th appearance in the competition.
However, Gruda’s fellow substitute James Milner restored parity against his old club when he slotted in from the penalty spot in the 67th minute, following Matheus Nunes’ handball.
James Trafford made a fantastic save to deny Jan Paul van Hecke as City aimed to withstand a late onslaught, but the pressure told when Kaoru Mitoma played in Gruda, who coolly dispatched.
While 10th-placed Brighton can celebrate their first win of the 2025/26 Premier League season, it is now back-to-back defeats for City, who are a point back in 12th.
How the match unfolded
Haaland had three chances to mark his milestone appearance inside the opening 25 minutes – twice scuffing shots from the edge of the area before seeing Bart Verbruggen parry a header off the line.
But Haaland got his goal in the 34th minute, prodding home after some fantastic work from Omar Marmoush in Brighton’s box.
Marmoush almost had another assist when he poked a brilliant ball across the area for Oscar Bobb, but he could not turn his attempt on target, and City were made to pay for that miss.
Nunes blocked Lewis Dunk’s volley with an outstretched arm, and Milner – just seven minutes after his introduction – made no mistake from 12 yards.
Yankuba Minteh and Georginio Rutter went close before Trafford somehow got to Van Hecke’s deflected flick, yet Brighton’s winner arrived when Gruda raced through and sat down City’s goalkeeper and the retreating Rayan Ait-Nouri to finish into a gaping net.
Super subs win the day
Veteran campaigner Milner, who could break the all-time appearance record in the Premier League this season, was not brought to Brighton for his goalscoring, but the 39-year-old duly kept his cool when presented with the opportunity.
Milner was a key cog in City’s league triumphs in 2012 and 2014, before he moved on to be equally as impactful for Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp, and so it was fitting for the midfielder to open his Brighton account in the top flight – over two years after he joined them – against one of his former teams.
He celebrated by paying tribute to the late Diogo Jota, with Milner – now the second-oldest goalscorer in Premier League history – having taken the No 20 shirt this season in honour of his former Liverpool team-mate.
Hurzeler’s raft of changes proved a masterstroke, and a player 18 years Milner’s junior in Gruda capped off the turnaround by displaying the type of composure that Brighton lacked in their defeat at Everton last week.
With AFC Bournemouth coming up after the international break, Hurzeler will hope this superb comeback proves to be a jumping-off point for another strong season.
City lose control
City’s sluggish display against Tottenham Hotspur last time out will have served as a haunting flashback to parts of last season for Pep Guardiola, and with the Manchester derby coming up after the international break, City needed a positive response.
For much of this encounter, it looked as if they would get just that.
City had full control for the first hour, and the reintegration of Rodri, making his first Premier League start since he suffered that serious knee injury against Arsenal in September 2024, certainly helped.
But it will take a while for the 29-year-old to get back to his best level, and once Brighton found that new wave of energy after the changes, City lost their grip on the game.
It seemed as though Trafford would get them out of trouble when he acrobatically thwarted Van Hecke, but the vulnerability City displayed in 2024/25 was back on show again – they also fell to a 2-1 defeat in the corresponding fixture last season, having gone ahead through a Haaland goal.
After starting the season so well with a 4-0 rout of Wolverhampton Wanderers, there will now be real pressure for City to stop the rot when Manchester United visit the Etihad Stadium on 14 September.
Club reports
Brighton report | Man City report
What the managers said
Fabian Hurzeler (Brighton): "Sometimes football is not too much about tactics. It's about energy, intensity and togetherness on the pitch. The substitutes came in and made the difference. You always can spread energy and it gives your teammates and the whole crowd energy and that is very important in football."
Pep Guardiola (Man City): "When they scored the game shifted. Until the goal we were very good, we had chances and played a good game. Unfortunately we could not do it."
Next fixtures
Key facts
Man City have lost two of their first three Premier League matches in a season for the first time since the 2004/05 campaign. Only one team has ever lost two of their first three games and recovered to win the title – Man Utd in 1992/93.
Three of the last five Premier League matches City have lost when scoring first have come at the Amex against Brighton (May 2021, November 2024, August 2025).
Gruda’s 89th minute winning goal was only the seventh Premier League winning goal against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City scored in the 89th minute or later, and was the latest (88:33) since Amad's winner for Man Utd in December 2024 (89:06).
Milner’s penalty – his first Premier League goal since Boxing Day 2019 for Liverpool – made him the oldest ever penalty scorer in a Premier League game and the second oldest scorer ever (39 years, 239 days), behind Teddy Sheringham (40 years, 268 days).