MANCHESTER, England – It’s hard to win anything with an unreliable defence, so Pep Guardiola has work to do if Manchester City are to come close to repeating last season’s Treble success this time around.
Eight goals conceded in three games, with the lead falling six times in those games, is the kind of statistic usually associated with Erik Ten Hag’s Manchester United rather than Manchester City, but it is the reality of Guardiola’s side now then. Tottenham ended their three-game losing streak with a 3-3 draw at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
These are unusual times in the city. It’s the first time they’ve gone three Premier League games without a win since March-April 2017, and you have to go back to November 2009 for the last time City led in three successive league games and failed to win any of them, as Guardiola’s side did against Chelsea ( 4-4), Liverpool (1-1) and now Tottenham.
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Things may get worse before they get better. City travel to Aston Villa – one point behind in fourth place – on Wednesday, after Unai Emery’s side won their last seven matches at home. City will face them without Rodri, whose yellow card against Tottenham earned him a one-match suspension, and Guardiola will remember that his side lost three games in a row while the Spanish midfielder was suspended earlier this season.
Rodri’s absence is a one-game issue that can be addressed by Kalvin Phillips, John Stones or Rico Luis slotting in in front of the back four, but the defensive issues will need more work than a simple selection swap.
Firstly, City have a problem at left-back. Brennan Johnson’s pace down Spurs’ right flank was a constant problem for Josko Gvardiol, the centre-back who plays at left-back, and the visitors’ first goal came from Son Heung-min who beat Jeremy Doku down the left channel for City as Gvardiol struggled to come back. After a counterattack. Ruben Dias has also struggled to find his form at centre-back, despite being City’s most consistent defender since arriving from Benfica in 2020, and Stones’ injury-related absence for most of this season has also affected the solidity of Guardiola’s side.
It’s a problem Guardiola acknowledged after the Tottenham game, with the City boss admitting his side must find a way back to consistency and reliability in defence.
“People say: ‘You should be worried about the goals you concede,'” Guardiola said. “Of course, but how many chances do we concede? We rarely concede any. It happens, but okay, let’s go. It’s a difficult situation, it’s the first time we’ve faced a situation where you play well but the results don’t come.” .
“I remember my first season, we played well but we couldn’t get results. The only cure I got was that when you play at the level we were at, you keep doing the same thing. You create more chances, you score more goals,” Guardiola added. Be more creative than your opponent. Just do good things, and deliver well. Football is about mistakes sometimes, but we are still there.”
City may be in the midst of a tough run of games against opponents willing and able to attack and cause the champions problems. Villa are in the same league as Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham, but after City traveled to Villa Park, their fixture list became less risky with matches against Luton, Crystal Palace, Everton and Sheffield United before the end of December.
Guardiola’s side are unlikely to face strikers of the caliber of Son or Johnson during this round of matches, but their weaknesses in defense have been exposed by the top sides and opponents will be willing to use the same tactics in the second leg of the match. Half of the season.
So, City face a challenge they may not have faced last season, as they will face an opponent they believe they can overcome. Tottenham, despite all their injury woes, kept that faith despite falling behind twice at the Etihad Stadium, and were rewarded with an equaliser.
“The players didn’t give up until the final whistle and great work from Brennan [Johnson]An incredible cross into the penalty area, obviously by Dejan [Kulusevski] “He doesn’t usually score with headers, but I’m very proud of him and he’s a tremendous player,” Son told Sky Sports. “I think this point will bring us a lot for this season.” “I think this is a big point for the confidence of the team and the players.”
This goal may also bring confidence to other competitors as well. The city has vulnerabilities and can be exposed to them.
