Four defeats in 11 days is uncharted territory for Manchester City and Pep Guardiola.
Little wonder then that, while Liverpool were going five points clear on Saturday evening, the City boss was admitting his side could do with a break to clear their heads.
‘Everybody needs it, yes,’ Guardiola said. ‘It will be good for all the players. Ruben (Dias) can come back and John Stones and the other (injured) players.’
Injuries are a concern but, more than anything, City need a break from each other. The champions have conceded 10 goals in those four games. Their previous four defeats came between September 2023 and May 2024.
It takes something extraordinary for a set of opposition fans to even think about singing, ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning’, to Guardiola, which the Brighton fans did, and for the man himself to say another team may deserve to win the Premier League title this season after City collected six of the last seven.
Four defeats in 11 days is uncharted territory for Manchester City and Pep Guardiola
The City boss admitted his side could do with a break after losing to Brighton
Guardiola suggested it would be vital to get the likes of John Stones back from injury
At Brighton, they were without four senior central defenders, but there was a clear ploy by Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler to target Kyle Walker on City’s right, with 45 per cent of their attacks coming down that side.
Walker spoke candidly about City needing to put the cigars away after ‘eight years of winning everything’, but his performance here was a glaring low point. A week after he was demolished by Antoine Semenyo at Bournemouth, Kaoru Mitoma and Joao Pedro had a field day against the 34-year-old.
In a spell shortly before Brighton’s equaliser, Walker was all over the place, with an animated Guardiola then having an intense one-to-one with his skipper.
The City boss insisted his team would be back to their best when their injured players return, though he had the luxury here of sending on Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva, even if they were the only two changes he made.
Perhaps the most damning aspect of the performance was that City’s only attempt on target in the second half came in the 99th minute. The problems lie at both ends of the pitch — Erling Haaland has scored 15 goals this season, but the next best in a City shirt has only three.
An inability to deal with low blocks means they no longer blow teams away and kill games off as they once did.
The last time City won a league game by more than a goal was in August and that’s not a good sign when you have only kept two clean sheets.
Credit must go to Hurzeler, too. He gave a half-time interview calling on his team to ‘play with more courage’ and introduced Carlos Baleba at the break, who he said later was the best player on the pitch, while two of his other substitutes, Joao Pedro and Matt O’Riley, scored Brighton’s goals.
There was a clear plan from Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler to target Kyle Walker (left)
Erling Haaland scored his 15th goal of the season but the next best in a City shirt has only three
Credit must go to Hurzeler after substitutes Joao Pedro and Matt O’Riley provided the goals
For Guardiola, the international break is a chance to head to warmer climes and reflect before a run of 12 games in six weeks, leading into the year which could be his last in Manchester.
A decision on his future is imminent, with each of his last two contract extensions announced in November.
Asked how he was coping, a weary Guardiola said: ‘Hopefully, we will come back and if we don’t come back, we will learn.
‘That makes us believe how difficult it was to win and how nice it will be when we win again. Right now, we aren’t at our best, but it’s only November. We have to recover and we’ll see.’
Now it’s time to see if Guardiola and Co can deliver the kind of response they did last season, when they went unbeaten in the league from December onwards. But with Tottenham at home next followed by a trip to Liverpool, the road back does not look easy.
