The Premier League champions suffered a 2-1 defeat at Villa Park. It means that City have lost nine of their previous 12 games in all competitions and it’s looking almost impossible they will challenge to claim a fifth successive top-flight crown. Pep Guardiola’s side are sixth in the table – some nine points behind Liverpool who now have two games in hand ahead of a trip to Tottenham Hotspur today (4.30pm GMT).
To compound City’s miseries, they lost John Stones to a recurrence of an injury against Villa. They already have fellow central defenders Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake on the sidelines along with midfield maestro Rodri. But Guardiola believes there were still positives to take despite his team’s form remaining in the mire.
“If there is a moment that I cannot overthink, it is right now. [I] try to be simple, stick to my principles and give certainty to the team,” said City boss Guardiola.
Tell them they can do it and how they can give benefit for the team defensively and offensively. The starting line-up was good. It’s not an easy place to come and today we played much better than last season [here].
“We take the positives and reflect. When I see the players before, during and after and how they behave I feel pride. We have to find the balance to create more chances than we concede. We don’t have a defence for the results.
“They are not good. It’s about what I can do with my people to get the results back and continue. Hopefully the players will come back step by step then we can continue.”
City striker Erling Haaland has managed just two goals in his eight appearances. However, he insists that the dressing room is still very much behind Guardiola. We have to continue [working to put it right],” Haaland said. “The first [person] I’m looking at is myself, I haven’t been doing things good enough, I haven’t been scoring my chances and everything. I have to do better, it’s a lot on me and I haven’t been good enough.”
