Manchester City 2 Albion 1

This time Albion could not dig themselves out of a hole.

Unlike at Marseille, unlike at home to Liverpool, unlike against Bournemouth, they were unable to salvage a result after their half-time meeting with Roberto De Zerbi.

They probably gave City fans more concerns than they ever have on their various trips to the Etihad but that first point there remains elusive.

Throw in a 3-0 deficit at Aston Villa, which they fleetingly ate into before losing 6-1, and the Seagulls are giving themselves some huge second-half salvage operations at the moment.

The bugbear early in the campaign was they were giving away consolation goals to spoil clean sheets when games were all but won.

But that failing did not cost them points.

This is more important.

Still there was enough in both senses at the Etihad to leave them motivated, educated and encouraged to put things right.

Especially going into a set of fixtures which should – repeat, should – be a bit more accessible than those of the past few weeks.

Staring at a repeat of that Villa mauling when they went 2-0 down inside 20 minutes, Albion averted further damage in the first half and stepped up a gear as the second developed.

By the end, City were down to ten after Manuel Akanji’s panicky grab to stop an Ansu Fati raid and home fans were calling for the final whistle.

De Zerbi said: “The improvement is important.

“Today we proved we can play with more courage, more personality if we want to compete with City.

“If we play with courage, with personality, with more energy, we can play like the second half.

“It is sad if we play like in the first half – timidi (shy, timid).

“I want to play with personality.

“We can lose. It’s no problem if we lose 6-1 but I want to see personality, energy like in the second half.

“But it is way because we are improving, we are becoming bigger, we compete in European competition for the first time in our life.

“For it, I am positive and I have a big, big confidence in my players.

“For it, I am sad for the first half.

“But anyway we were playing against City.

“In the Champions League, when the big team comes to play against City, it is the same as City-Brighton, the first half.”

After a reasonably encouraging few minutes, Albion were outclassed for the rest of the first half.

Jeremy Doku was the obvious huge threat wide on the left and he got home fans buzzing in a way they rarely do for these fixtures.

They loved the way he tormented their former player James Milner but De Zerbi also highlighted the lack of support he received.

Pascal Gross was the man past whom Doku cruised before setting up a bizarre two-touch finish for Julian Alvarez past a wrong-footed Jason Steele.

Albion’s unease under City pressure led to Erling Haaland rifling home the second after Carlos Baleba failed to diffuse a slightly awkward pass from Solly March.

It did not feel then like the Norwegian’s goal would be a precious matchwinner but that was how it proved.

Doku should have made it 3-0 by half-time and there were further moments of threat in the second period.

Steele saved well from Haaland and Lewis Dunk, the one tower of resilience in the first half, cleared from in front of his own goal.

The way he played the ball out from there gave Albion chance to immediately halve the arrears as Kaoru Mitoma’s cross was half-cleared and Ansu Fati fired in.

Ansu offered extra energy and ideas after going on as sub.

We need to see more of this from him.

Billy Gilmour, who went on with him, did similarly.

Mitoma should have scored at 2-0, be it when he could not beat Stefan Ortega in a one-on-one manufactured by Dunk and Ansu or when he rose at the far post and headed a corner into the side-netting from close range.

Albion could have snatched a point after Akanji went and there were moments which demanded better delivery.

By then, they were playing without March, who suffered a knee injury as he twisted in pursuit of Bernardo Silva.

It looked bad but was not confirmed as such as of Saturday evening.

Albion will hope that is not a grim legacy of this latest trip to the Etihad.

There are certainly reasons why they can benefit from their up-and-down experience at the home of the champions.

Man City: Ortega; Walker, Stones (Dias 75), Akanji, Gvardiol; Rodri, Bernardo Silva; Foden, Alvarez (Ake 90+6), Doku (Grealish 75); Haaland. Subs not used: Ederson, Lewis, Kovacic, Phillips, Gomez, Nunes.

Goals: Alvarez 7, Haaland 19.

Yellow card: Rodri 38 (dissent), Akanji 63 (foul), Grealish 84 (dissent).

Red card: Akanji 90+5 (foul, second yellow).

Albion: Steele; Milner (Veltman 46), Dunk, Igor, March (van Hecke 90+4); Baleba (Gilmour 66), Gross; Adingra, Joao Pedro (Ansu Fati 66), Mitoma; Welbeck (Ferguson 16). Subs not used: Verbruggen, Webster, Dahoud, Lallana.

Goal: Ansu Fati 73.

Yellow card: March 36 (foul), Igor 64 (foul).

Referee: Robert Jones.

VAR: Michael Salisbury.