Manchester City slumped to a fourth defeat in a row going down 2-1 to Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday evening.
Kyle Walker and Ilkay Gundogan were welcomed back by City and replaced Manuel Akanji and Bernardo Silva, who were both relegated to the bench.
Brazilian starlet Savinho should've broken the deadlock on 16 minutes with a shot from a tight angle after getting in-behind, but Bart Verbruggen parried.
City did get ahead after seven minutes when Erling Haaland pierced through the defence to get onto Mateo Kovacic's through pass and finished from close-range.
Verbruggen was given more duties two minutes apart as Haaland nearly doubled the lead through a shot from inside the box, but the former steered onto the post and out for a corner-kick.
Brighton decided to bring on Carlos Noom Quomah Baleba ahead of the second half and withdrew Yasin Ayari in a quest to turn the tide.
The Seagulls nearly got on level terms through a powerful header by Jack Hinshelwood from a well-worked delivery, but Ederson Moraes was up to the task.
With the game relatively open, City lived on the edge towards the closing quarter as a loose pass feed Kaoru Mitoma in on goal but Ederson charged and thwarted him.
Indeed, the host were level pegging inside the last ten minutes after Joao Pedro nudged possession in the area following a scramble and finished from close-range.
More misery fell on the reigning champions where Pedro picked up a layoff from Danny Welbeck to feed Matt O'Riley to slot in from the edge of the box.
With nine minutes time added on, the Cityzens failed to get back on level terms and suffered a third successive defeat in all competitions.