Manchester City is in its worst slump in Pep Guardiola’s reign.
The English champions lost a fourth straight game in all competitions as Brighton came from behind to win 2-1 in the Premier League on Saturday.
City hasn’t lost four games in a row in all competitions since 2006 — two years before the Abu Dhabi takeover of the club.
Guardiola has never lost four straight matches anywhere in his illustrious managerial career. In his time at Bayern Munich, Guardiola’s team lost three straight games after a penalty-shootout defeat in the 2014-15 season.
Erling Haaland put City in front in the 23rd minute with his league-leading 12th goal of the campaign, but Brighton fought back as Joao Pedro equalized in the 78th and set up Matt O’Riley for the winner in the 83rd on his Premier League debut.
Second-placed City stayed two points behind Liverpool, which hosted Aston Villa later.
Guardiola’s team’s losing run started at Tottenham in the English League Cup last week, before a 2-1 defeat at Bournemouth in the league and a 4-1 reverse at Sporting in the Champions League on Tuesday, when City also took the lead but fell apart in the second half.
Earlier, Wolverhampton secured its first win in the league and climbed off the bottom of the standings by beating Southampton 2-0 to ease the pressure on manager Gary O’Neil.
Brazil forward Matheus Cunha set up Pablo Sarabia for a second-minute goal and scored himself in the second half to inspire Wolves at Molineux.
Southampton dropped to last place and has lost nine of its 11 matches since returning to the top flight.
Harry Wilson scored another late goal to help Fulham continue its impressive season by winning at 10-man Crystal Palace 2-0.
Wilson’s two stoppage-time goals earned Fulham a dramatic win at Brentford on Monday. This time, he built on Emile Smith Rowe’s opener by netting in the 83rd minute, after Daichi Kamada was red-carded for Palace. Wilson had another goal ruled out for handball in stoppage time.
Brentford bounced back from that painful loss to Fulham with a 3-2 victory over Bournemouth, thanks to Yoane Wissa’s double and a 50th-minute winner from Mikkel Damsgaard.
West Ham drew at home with Everton 0-0 in the other game, with England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford producing a breathtaking save in stoppage time to preserve a point for the visitors.
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This story has been corrected to say Fulham won 2-0, not 3-0.
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
