Minds wandered late on. At least Antoine Semenyo will be through the doors by the weekend. Oh, he’s scored a last-minute winner on his farewell at Bournemouth? Scratch that then. Can somebody explain why he’s not already here?
Manchester City watched Tijjani Reijnders and Bernardo Silva squander golden chances when leading and then drew, taking the points lost since the ball dropped to six. Arsenal could be eight clear by the time Semenyo is clutching a sky blue shirt.
It leaves Pep Guardiola needing snookers if they are to navigate a way past the leaders now – and a hell of an uninterrupted break at the table too.
Erling Haaland scored a penalty and then fluffed his lines late on, motionless and disconsolate as play continued around him, time standing still.
The trouble is, City have stood still over the last week. Three draws, a glut of missed opportunities across the first two and then again when Fabian Hurzeler’s chippy Brighton turned up.
Difficult, in hindsight, not to surmise that Semenyo – now into double figures in the Premier League this season – would not at least have offered them more cutting edge.
Erling Haaland put City ahead but he was left frustrated as they failed to kick on after that
Guardiola and Fabian Hurzeler clashed on the touchline in what has become a grudge match
Maybe Bournemouth stipulating that the Ghana international features in all three games before his £65million release clause expired was unavoidable. Maybe director of football Hugo Viana has negotiated something like a more favourable payment structure. If it’s the latter than the extra points might have been a wiser idea.
City are not out of this title race because even eight points adrift in January, discounting City would be foolish. Even a City with their senior central defender on the night, Abdukodir Khusanov, only 21 and alongside debutant Max Alleyne, who had spent the season at Watford until this point.
Yet Guardiola was edgy, in need of a spark. Hurzeler and Brighton’s backroom team obliged with that. The benches, it is fair to say, do not like each other and this is becoming a modern-day Premier League grudge match.
Some deep irony was at play inside the Brighton technical area about half a second after Haaland stroked City in front from the spot four minutes before the break, assistant Jonas Scheuermann motioning to fourth official Tony Harrington that the refereeing team had been influenced by the crowd.
Flatter crowds than this are hard to remember at the Etihad Stadium, thousands of empty seats amid ongoing unease between regular match-going fans and the executives who organise ticketing. The huge North Stand expansion looms like a yawning question.
Given the state of the league table and City’s general improvement, that the place was not full – and the noise or lack thereof giving off an apathetic vibe – does not bode well.
There have got to be discussions inside the offices over the road in the morning as to what they can do to fix this because the tourist element who will fill that new space and come to watch Haaland are not doing so on Wednesday nights in January against Brighton & Hove Albion.
The penalty that Scheuermann became so vexed about offered some needle to work with as it appeared increasingly unclear whether the jostling and aggravated Haaland and Jan Paul van Hecke were sworn enemies or frustrated lovers.
‘I love that,’ Hurzeler grinned. Guardiola dismissed enquiries on his various rows with the young German as ‘between us’.
Guardiola was mocking Hurzeler long before the penalty, mimicking the Brighton boss to a sniggering backroom team as Silva was awarded a foul.
Again, there is sweet irony in Guardiola taking umbrage with a young prickly manager who likes to say his piece and does so with a fair amount of energy. It transpires that Hurzeler has never lost against Guardiola in four meetings.
The benches couldn’t be separated as referee Thomas Bramall failed to award Jeremy Doku a penalty on being felled by Diego Gomez, bickering away as VAR did its thing.
Guardiola was right in among it all, later amusingly acting the peacemaker on dragging substitute Rodri away from arguing.
Once cautioned by Bramall, City’s manager spent the next minute – before and after Haaland sent Bart Verbruggen the wrong way – chuntering in Hurzeler’s direction. Whatever he said when ball hit net was with a touch of malice.
Morose took over later, on the hour, as Kaoru Mitmo was afforded all the room he fancied to equalise across Gianluigi Donnarumma from the edge of the box. ‘I liked the way we played,’ Guardiola said. ‘Many good things. But we’ve to score goals. Scoring goals is doing your job. It’s not just one player and it’s not just today.’