Manchester City have never had it this bad under Pep Guardiola.
Guardiola has never had it this bad in his managerial career.
A sense of crisis is looming over the champions of England after they lost a fourth straight game in all competitions, 2-1 at Brighton, and slipped five points behind Liverpool in the Premier League on Saturday. Liverpool beat Aston Villa 2-0 thanks to goals by Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah.
Second-placed City hadn’t lost four games in a row since 2006 – two years before the Abu Dhabi takeover of the club and 10 years before Guardiola’s game-changing arrival.
As for Guardiola, widely regarded as the world’s best coach, he had never lost four straight matches anywhere in his illustrious career that began in 2007.
So, Guardiola was asked, is this the end of the era, after leading City to an unprecedented four straight top-flight league titles?
“It’s what the people want, right?” he posed. “That’s normal – we won a lot. I would just like to have all the squad (available).”
That won’t be happening anytime soon considering star centre midfielder Rodri is out for the season with an ACL injury. Guardiola also had his best four centre backs – Ruben Dias, John Stones, Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake – unavailable, while playmaker Kevin De Bruyne is clearly not sharp enough on return from injury.
“When we play bad, I am the first to say, ‘Oh, oh, I don’t like it.’ But I don’t have that feeling,” Guardiola said.
Former England midfielder Jamie Redknapp savaged City on Sky Sports:
“Four bad results, the second half, that is one of the worst halves of football I have seen from a Pep Guardiola side, they were abject, they did not defend, or win individual battles or pass the ball forward at times.
“First half they were excellent, the problem was they should have been 3-0 up, but second half when Hurzeler made the changes, there was only one team in it.
“They looked like a bunch of strangers and the goals they conceded summed it up, they were really poor goals from Man City’s point of view.”
City were dominant in the first half and went in front when Erling Haaland scored his league-leading 12th goal of the campaign.
However, like in the 4-1 loss at Sporting in the Champions League on Tuesday, City couldn’t sustain their level and Brighton fought back, with Joao Pedro equalising in the 78th and setting up Matt O’Riley for the winner in the 83rd on his Premier League debut.
City’s losing run started at Tottenham in the English League Cup last week, before a 2-1 defeat at Bournemouth in the league – their first league defeat in 11 months.
“We cannot do it every three days, three days, four days, three days with the (injury) situation we have,” Guardiola said, adding, “I would love to have the players (back).”
Wolves secured their first English Premier League win after 11 games and climbed off the bottom of the table by beating Southampton 2-0 to ease the pressure on manager Gary O’Neil.
Brazil forward Matheus Cunha set up Pablo Sarabia for a second-minute goal and netted himself in the second half to inspire Wolves at Molineux on Saturday.
Southampton dropped to bottom and have now lost nine of 11 matches since returning to the top flight.
O’Neil said: “The players deserve it. They’ve put in an awful lot of work.
Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Gary O’Neil celebrates. (Photo by Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)
“The win was not about me today, a lot was made about me and my future, I’m comfortable in my position and the future my coaching career has.”
Fulham continued their impressive season by winning at 10-man Crystal Palace 3-0 to move level on points with fourth-placed Chelsea.
Emile Smith Rowe opened the scoring and Harry Wilson – whose two stoppage-time goals earned a win at Brentford on Monday – added two more late goals after Daichi Kamada was red-carded for Palace.
Afterwards, Fulham boss Marco Silva admitted Wilson is doing everything he can to fight for a start but said: “I know that Harry, like all the others, he wants to play from the start.
“I know him very well, I know his mood when he’s not playing, but the reality is that he has to be ready to help his team from the start, or if the manager decides a different way from the bench.
“That is his job, I’m here to take decisions, but he’s doing nothing wrong.”
Brentford bounced back from that painful loss with a 3-2 victory over Bournemouth, thanks to Yoane Wissa’s double and a 50th-minute winner from Mikkel Damsgaard.
West Ham drew at home with Everton 0-0 in the other game, with England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford producing a breathtaking save in stoppage time to preserve a point for the visitors.
with AAP
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