Last night, Manchester City lost to Aston Villa. A new defeat which worries in England.
Last night, several Premier League matches were on the program, including an enticing Manchester United-Chelsea match. A match won 2 to 1 by Erik ten Hag's men, who were able to count on an in-form Scott McTominay. At the same time, neighbor and rival Manchester City was expected on the pitch at Villa Park to face Unai Emery's men. Radiant since the start of the season, the Villans have done more than hold their own against the Mancunian machine. Indeed, Aston Villa won 1-0 thanks to a goal by Leon Bailey.
After this setback, the Skyblues are in fourth place in the standings with 30 points . They are ahead of Arsenal (36 points), Liverpool (34 points) and Aston Villa (32 points) and closely followed by Tottenham and Manchester United (27 points). In a bad situation, the Citizens have just had their fourth match without success in the Premier League, since they had three draws (Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham) before sinking to Aston Villa. This has not happened since March-April 2017 to residents of the Etihad Stadium.
Man City worried
Dominated by valiant Villans, they also struggled to create chances since they only attempted two shots last night. Unheard of for a team led by Pep Guardiola . A frightening statistic which clearly illustrates the difficulties encountered by the Mancuniens, who were also machine-gunned by their opponents, authors of 22 attempts on goal. In the press this Thursday morning, Manchester City is logically not spared. “More pain for Pep Guardiola as Leon Bailey seals a 14th straight home win for Unai Emery's side, leaving the champions winless in four games and six points behind ,” writes the Daily Mail .
Same observation for The Sun : “Pep Guardiola had spoken with such conviction of his belief that Manchester City would win a fourth consecutive title that we knew he must be worried (…) One evening when Aston Villa inflicted on his team a fearsome beating, which was not reflected in the score, these fears were laid bare.” For its part, the Manchester Evening News praised the players as " Josko Gvardiol and Bernardo Silva mediocre in defeat ". Both received a 4 for the entire work. Worried about the Skyblues, who are less dominant and solid, the media questioned Guardiola on the subject after the meeting.
Pep Guardiola lucid
The Iberian technician, deprived of Rodri, confided: “it is my duty, my job to find a way to repair things because for many years together we managed to find a way to play and now we are struggling . We need to change the dynamic, winning as quickly as possible against Luton and Crystal Palace. I have to think about it. The dynamic changes by winning games, but to win games we have to think about what we need to do with the players we have. It was really difficult because they (the Villans, editor's note) are really physical and able to control many aspects. That's why they're up there, playing good football and we didn't succeed. We have to accept when a team is better and recognize it.
Relaunched by journalists regarding the fact that his team will win the title as he himself said at a press conference on Tuesday, the former coach of FC Barcelona and Bayern Munich was very clear. “Yes, definitely.” We will have to raise our heads against Luton then Crystal Palace. Which is totally within the ropes of Erling Haaland and his teammates, who have a more affordable schedule than in recent weeks. Touched but not sunk, the wounded Mancunian beast intends to retain its throne.