Manchester City were held to a disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League on Wednesday, as Erling Haaland’s penalty was cancelled out by a second-half strike from the visitors’ Kaoru Mitoma.

City, who have now drawn their last three league games, are second in the table with 43 points, five behind leaders Arsenal, who play Liverpool at home on Thursday.

“I liked a lot the way we played. Many new players and many good things, but we don’t score goals,” City manager Pep Guardiola told reporters.

“We were expecting goals, but it’s not about that; we have to score goals. We could not do it, and we have to accept it.”

Haaland struck his 150th goal for City from the penalty spot four minutes before the break, after Jeremy Doku was fouled by Diego Gomez and a VAR review confirmed the decision.

The Norwegian looked relieved to end a three-match goal drought and take his tally to 20 Premier League goals for the season.

City went close to doubling the lead just after the break when Bernardo Silva pounced on a Brighton error, but his effort struck the post.

City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and Brighton’s Maxim De Cuyper became involved in a heated confrontation, which ended with yellow cards for both players.

Brighton struck back on the hour mark, as Mitoma met a pass from the flank and positioned himself at the edge of the box before guiding a low shot into the far corner.

The visitors took control after the equaliser, slowing the tempo as they built their attacks, and came agonisingly close to going ahead.

Mitoma found Gomez inside the box, but Gomez could not get his finish right and struck the goalkeeper. The rebound fell to Mitoma, whose angled shot from near the byline rattled the post.

In the closing moments, Haaland first saw a goalbound header cleared off the line before finding himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper minutes later, only for Bart Verbruggen to produce a fine save and deny him.

Guardiola, the six-time Premier League-winning coach, admitted the path to a seventh title had become more complicated despite 17 more matches to play in the season.

“Of course, if you don’t win games, you cannot think about these things,“ he said. “We have three games we didn’t win. It’s more difficult (to win the league now). We will continue.”

Guardiola also confirmed that winger Savinho will be sidelined for several weeks.

“He will be out for one and a half to two months,” Guardiola said. “He will be back.”