Manchester City fell to back-to-back Premier League losses for the first time under Enzo Maresca after being undone by buoyant Brighton 1-0 at the Etihad.
The result comes a week on from defeat at Aston Villa. City had previously not suffered consecutive league beatings since August 2025.
Brighton, dumped out of the Carabao Cup on penalties on this ground just four days ago, were excellent value in the first half, Yasin Ayari scoring what turned out to be the winner after Matheus Nunes made a mess of his attempted clearance.
But they also had to weather a City onslaught in the second period, matching style with steel and resilience. Maresca's side threw everything forward in search of a breakthrough, with Iliman Ndiaye rattling the crossbar, Erling Haaland going close from a corner and Nunes drawing an athletic save from a busy Bart Verbruggen.
The goalkeeper proved immovable, making seven saves in total.
Maresca had his hands on his head again when Nico O'Reilly's header flashed wide late on, as City contrived to squander chance after chance, out-creating their visitors overall but unable to make anything stick.
Jack Hinshelwood could have sealed it at the opposite end before Brighton's points were eventually confirmed, the first time they have triumphed at the Etihad.
With a club record points total at this stage of a top-flight campaign, Fabian Hurzeler's side look every bit like title contenders, adding another statement victory to their list of achievements after also seeing off Arsenal last month.
Are booming Brighton in title race?
Sky Sports' Laura Hunter at the Etihad:
Brighton's players milked their celebrations with the away end. They deserved to. This rise warrants applause - and attention.
Are they in the title race? It's perhaps too early to tell, but by my estimation Fabian Hurzeler has a team with superb harmony, who play with complete tactical clarity. That greatly enhances their chances of doing something special.
Enzo Maresca professed to know exactly what Brighton were going to offer up, having hosted them just four days ago, but he could not devise a plan to stop their flow. City were outbattled in midfield and outrun overall.
If this was a tangible test of Brighton's stomach for the race, they passed with flying colours.
Story of the match in stats
11: GOAL! Man City are cut open as Ayari benefits from Nunes' mistake to steer beyond Donnarumma.
22: HUGE CHANCE! Anderson stands up a lovely ball into the six-yard box but Ndiaye glances his header wide.
34: CHANCE! Donnarumma denies Gomez from a tight angle as Brighton push for a second.
48: MISS! De Cuyper wastes a huge chance to double Brighton's lead after slamming over the bar from Gomez's cross.
52: WOODWORK! Ndiaye rattles the crossbar with a fierce strike.
62: SAVE! Verbruggen saves from Nunes as waves of City pressure increase.
88: CHANCE! Rutter leads a one-man counter-attack and feeds Hinshelwood but the substitute dinks wide.
89: CHANCE! O'Reilly miscues his header as City's missed chances continue to mount.
90+4: SAVE! Doku skips past his man and is again denied by a wonderful performance from Verbruggen.
Maresca: 'Silly' goals costing us
Man City boss Enzo Maresca:
"We created enough to get some points but we didn't score. We did enough to deserve something. In this moment we need to move on.
"Sometimes [mistakes] happen. Unfortunately it's happening for our players. We need to analyse and understand what we can do better. We are conceding silly goals; we can avoid that.
"For sure, we are not happy. No one is happy when we lose a game. We were aware we weren't going to win all the games, these moments arrive, so we have to move on as quickly as possible."
Hurzeler hails 'defensive mindset'
Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler:
"We expected a game where we had to suffer, facing one of the best teams in the world.
"We had to stick together and we had this feeling that defence wins today. Defence wins you tight games. We had a defensive mindset.
"We faced a lot of adversity during the game and really proud of how my players kept a clean sheet with quality and a bit of luck."
