Pep Guardiola took part in his press conference following Manchester City’s 2-1 defeat at Brighton and was asked if he now faces his biggest challenge at the club.
“Yeah, like when we won 16 or 17 games in a row to win the Premier League,” he replied.
The City manager was speaking four years ago when City began their Premier League campaign with five wins from their opening 12 and, as now, they were five points adrift of the leaders at this early stage.
City went on to win 15 games in a row to win the title that year, but it’s hard to see them repeating that feat now.
City were still playing well then, and Guardiola’s side hadn’t done so for a while, and Saturday’s defeat at Brighton exposed all their problems.
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Brighton & Hove Albion v Manchester City Premier League Highlights
Even before this four-game losing streak, City had been lucky, with the previous four games including a controversial last-minute goal against Wolves, a narrow one-goal win against Southampton and another tense win against Fulham. where Adama Traore should have scored a hat-trick It was far from convincing.
Even Guardiola admitted it after the last defeat against Brighton. We played much worse against Fulham than against Spurs and Sporting.
This is not a blip. it’s City’s performances that regress to the mean.
Why are they less convincing now? They seem to have holes from front to back and the absence of Rodri at the back is likely to be a big factor in the season.
City have been so open on the counter in his absence, conceding 26 shots from quick breaks in all competitions, more than any team in the Premier League.
With the Spaniard out, City simply cannot push out teams that break them down in transition, and therefore have less of an edge in the game.Brighton missed six big chances in the second half before eventually scoring.
It was the same on the eve of Victor Gökeres’ hat-trick against Sporting in midweek. the swedish striker missed a big fight before getting his treble.City have lost two leads this week and there were warning signs midway through the game.
Rodri’s burden of stopping fast breaks has been shared in this City team with little impact, Mateo Kovacic unable to stem the flow and even Kyle Walker’s pace can’t save them.
With the right-back constantly troubled by Kaoru Mitoma and Pervis Estupinan on his flank, it was no surprise that Brighton’s equalizer came from that side of the pitch.
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Manchester City’s Rico Lewis pounced on Danny Welbeck’s attempt but was unable to prevent Joao Pedro from scoring for Brighton.
The second goal. Rodri’s absence could be pointed out again. How easy was it for Carlos Baleba to find Joao Pedro with a pass in the middle of the pitch, then for Pedro to find Matt O’Reilly for the winner?
Gaps and holes like this are good when the top end of the pitch is firing, which is another weakness that City show.
Against Brighton, City took a 1-0 lead at half-time, but xG 1.99 suggested it should have been two.By the time Erling Holland got on the scoresheet, he had missed five more chances as his impressive strike the numbers, like his team, were regressing toward the middle.
Haaland, of course, cannot do it alone. There’s another problem for City, the Premier League champions’ next-highest scorer, with just 0.07 on target in the second period as a result of that firepower.
For City, many of these questions appear to stem from injuries, with Guardiola missing Ruben Diaz and Stones at Brighton, with Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji eventually making the bench as they were not fit enough to play, leaving Jahmai Simpson-Pusey. play at the back: Forward Jeremy Doku and Jack Grealish are also injured.
We could not maintain the consistency of our game during the 90 minutes,” said Guardiola. “We couldn’t be more aggressive in these areas. But I’m sure when the players come back we can create some individual qualities in the team and we’ll be back.”
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Guardiola highlighted injuries as main reason for Manchester City’s 2-1 defeat at Brighton
But few have picked up the fiddle for one of the world’s most well-funded teams.
Other teams will also point to similar injuries.Liverpool have been without Alisson Becker and Diogo Jota for a long time this season.Arsenal have been without Martin Odegaard for six weeks, as well as serious injuries to half of the squad, especially in defence.
Guardiola even rightly pointed out in his post-Brighton press conference that this is a problem across Europe as Real Madrid see three players limping off. Everyone has to deal with it and continue to deal with it, maybe this season is about those teams with those who cope best with these setbacks.
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Erling Haaland clashed with Jan Paul van Hecke at the end of Manchester City’s defeat at Brighton, while Pep Guardiola had an animated chat with the defender after the game.
For all of City’s problems, they still have Holland, Ederson, Walker and last season’s Premier League Player of the Year Phil Foden yet to score in the Premier League this season.They need to do better.
“City” was behind in the fight for the title. And Guardiola is a manager who knows how to eliminate those gaps. “This is my challenge, our challenge,” he said. “I want to face it. I won’t back down. I want to do it more than ever.”
But never have Guardiola’s City had to fight back without their best player, Rodri. Never have they looked so shaky at both ends of the pitch. And they’ve never lost four games in a row.
Saturday, November 23 at 5:00 p.m
Start: 17:30
Watch Manchester City’s next Premier League game against Tottenham live on Sky Sports on November 23, kick-off 5.30pm.
