Manchester City missed a golden opportunity last week to put themselves 16 points ahead of Liverpool, instead succumbing to a 1-0 defeat at Anfield that gave their biggest title rivals renewed hope after a ropey start.
It was another frustrating evening on the red side of Stanley Park for City. But Pep Guardiola's side have won four of the last five Premier League titles not because they always turn it on in the biggest games but because they turn up to play against every single opponent more consistently than anyone else can.
Less than a week later, the lead is in double figures again (with a game in hand for City) after the Blues followed Liverpool's lunchtime defeat at lowly Nottingham Forest with the sort of routine win over Brighton that title challenges are built on. It may not be a surprise anymore but it is still notable that Guardiola's side cannot be kept down for long.
Also read: Man City player ratings vs Brighton as Erling Haaland scores twice
Brighton had the potential to be a difficult afternoon for the defending champions, with Roberto De Zerbi's team an unknown quantity in their infancy but they have already taken a better result away from Anfield than City managed. Their pressing from the beginning was intense, and at times in the first half they were able to do what few opponents can - especially at the Etihad - and box the Blues into their own third.
Guardiola, though, is paid the money he is because he can spot things that nobody else can. As Erling Haaland put it: "Before a game he tells us what is going to happen, and then the next day exactly that happens. It’s crazy, I don’t understand how that is possible."
On top of what was said ahead of the game, while play was stopped in the opening 10 minutes for an injury Guardiola shouted Haaland over and began explaining to him the opportunities he wanted him to exploit. Then the manager brought Bernardo into the conversation, then Ederson, then Ruben Dias.
Not long after, three of those players created the opening goal with Bernardo laying the ball back to Ederson before the goalkeeper launched a bouncing ball down that Haaland reached with his chest before the onrushing Robert Sanchez could get there out of his goal. After (fairly) bowling over Adam Webster, the Norwegian rolled in league goal No.16 for the campaign - more than any City player managed in the entirety of last season.
If the goal was the sort of route one football that isn't necessarily associated with Guardiola, the work done by Haaland before then making several runs back into midfield had caused enough uncertainty in the Brighton defence to pull them out of order.
City, of course, felt like they should have at least been given the chance to go ahead from the spot shortly before then; Haaland got the first touch to a low Kevin De Bruyne cross before Sanchez crunched him in the shin. Even though the striker's touch had taken the ball out of play, it looked a textbook example of how if the striker gets to the ball first if there is then contact on him from the opponent it is a penalty every day of the week.
Craig Pawson didn't think so for some reason, and neither did the Video Assistant Referee Lee Mason. Answers on a postcard.
Stranger still, Pawson then stopped play in the 40th minute to go to the monitor and review a much weaker penalty shout from Bernardo Silva - the Portugal international did get some contact in the box but his were the only real sustained shouts for a spot-kick. More than two minutes after the initial incident, the ref called a halt to proceedings and decided, on replay, that it was a foul after all.
Haaland picked up the ball unopposed after Mahrez's latest miss and buried goal No.17 before Sanchez could even get an arm out. It had the look of a false start in athletics going before the whistle, only in fact it is just Haaland really can hit the ball that hard.
That should have been that, although City conspired to make the game harder for themselves than it needed to be in the second half. Seconds after Riyad Mahrez had spurned a good chance to finish a flowing team move, Manu Akanji was bested on the right flank and Ederson beaten at his near post by Leandro Trossard to make it 2-1.
That brought unnecessary nerves, and Brighton - buoyed by their manager bellowing at every opportunity from the sidelines - poured forward in search of an equaliser. Ederson was busier than anyone would have liked him to be for a period.
Step forward De Bruyne though, curling a beauty past Sanchez from 25 yards to restore the two-goal cushion and effectively kill the contest with 15 minutes to spare. Haaland was brought off shortly afterwards, no doubt with Tuesday's match at his old stomping ground in Dortmund in mind.
After the chaos of last weekend and the subsequent rows that engulfed subsequent days, this was a return to calm as City did what they have done so well for so long under Guardiola. This match may have been far less memorable than the last match yet shows the City mantra that the title is fought for over 38 long matches.
As the final whistle went, the Blues closed to within one point of the top of the table and have now regained the three points on Liverpool that they lost at Anfield. As long as they continue to hang around the leaders, Guardiola can be confident there will be plenty of opportunities for both gold and silver when they come to the business end of the campaign.
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