Pep Guardiola seemed aimless as he wandered onto the Brighton pitch after another defeat. His steps were more of a dazed meander, lacking genuine direction.

The Manchester City manager appeared so deep in thought that he didn’t even remember to exchange the usual post-match courtesies with his counterpart, Fabian Hurzeler. Bart Verbruggen extended a handshake, seemingly by chance.

Guardiola stood alone, with Brighton’s goalkeeper being the only person he engaged with before politely acknowledging City’s traveling fans. These supporters have experienced a rare string of losses recently but may not tolerate it for long.

Sitting behind Manchester United at any season’s point—be it after three matches or 30—is an uncomfortable position. With Ruben Amorim’s squad visiting right after the international break, it’s best not to dwell on it for a while.

City hopes that this second consecutive defeat in a week—following a loss to Tottenham, after which Guardiola promptly headed straight for the tunnel—reflects growing pains associated with a riskier defensive strategy.

Some might see it as a sign of ongoing decline. Now, it’s up to Guardiola and Pep Lijnders to challenge that belief. If last season felt odd, this one, after spending over £300 million in two transfer periods, could become even more unusual if they continue along this path.

Ironically, Guardiola only really appeared relaxed in the opening 20 minutes after half-time. That was just before City imploded, James Milner converting a penalty after Matheus Nunes threw his arms at a Lewis Dunk shot. ‘Some of the mistakes we are doing are kids’ mistakes, you are not concentrating and paying attention,’ Rodri lamented.

Guardiola already looked resigned to surrendering this game before Brajan Gruda raced clear, sitting Rayan Ait-Nouri down and sliding the ball into an empty net in the final minute of normal time.

He is anxious right now, anxious beyond his normal idiosyncrasies. The Catalan has always been a micro-manager, sending messages, calling players over, arms constantly flailing. This feels a bit different though, the pressure to correct last year heightening.

He will know that it is three defeats from four competitive games, including the shock elimination by Al Hilal at the Club World Cup, and Guardiola is stretching his neck to notice who is picking up the new concepts.

Down at the Amex, the 54-year-old looked tired. Age and maturity dictate the old grandmaster is not the coach who bounds around any more, but there does seem more of an acceptance to adversity, an acceptance that when City struggle for a few moments in matches, wrestling themselves back into it is unlikely.

‘We forgot to play,’ Guardiola said, almost sighing. ‘After the goal, it was like Spurs — we play really good in the beginning, we concede a goal and then we are a little bit more unstable. We forget to continue playing. You can never stop to play. We played really well in the first half.’

He is not wrong there. City controlled Brighton nicely. Before eventually scoring, Erling Haaland could have had a hat-trick. Perhaps the Haaland of 2023 would have done.

Even so, Guardiola is fully aware these players need to learn the tweak in the press and how they attack teams, a tweak in the mould of assistant coach Lijnders. The pair chuntered about phases of play and passing through the thirds. An exasperated Guardiola was even imploring Rodri to exploit space to unlock Ait-Nouri going forward. Omar Marmoush was called over for his out-of-possession stuff, the Egyptian eventually recording more defensive contributions than anybody except Rodri.

During celebrations for Haaland’s clever opener, there was also an explanation delivered to Tijjani Reijnders on how to build up from the back. Bernardo Silva was given an extended earful for conceding a daft free-kick. The list goes on.

It looks like City’s new breed are being taught by Guardiola during games and his only true moment of spikiness was reserved for Hurzeler’s assistant, Jonas Scheuermann, when sarcastically inviting him to barrack the fourth official after Oscar Bobb was not given a foul. The two benches were spicy in parts, Hurzeler moaning at Lijnders, who was not paying attention. Ilkay Gundogan encouraged physio Federico Genovesi to hop over and get himself involved.

Hurzeler — whose quadruple substitution on the hour-mark changed the game — has now seen his Brighton teams take seven points from nine against City. The manager was visibly pumped up, home supporters in the posh seats remarking that he had altered his wardrobe especially for the showdown with Guardiola.

The young coach must have thrown his credit card at somebody at Zara earlier in the week. And in a huddle with his players at 1-1, he told them to launch everything at City.

‘We don’t accept a draw,’ he told them. City were hanging on at that point and those contrasting attitudes told the story.

Guardiola whispered his way through the post-match debriefs. It was a fitting end to August.