Manchester City, endless crisis. Guardiola, what nerves: this is how Pep lost his magic

December 21, 2024 (changed at 4:04 pm) – BIRMINGHAM (ENGLAND)

The disaster continues. This time it is Aston Villa who rages against Manchester City in crisis, taking a never-questioned 2-1 at Villa Park (Foden shortens in the 93rd minute) which for Guardiola's team means the third defeat in a row and the 9th in the last 12 matches in all competitions. This crisis has no longer been a moment of transition for some time, it is a tunnel from which the team that has won the last 4 Premier Leagues can no longer escape, a tunnel of which it cannot see the light which means rebirth. Instead of becoming a step forward towards recovery, each match pushes the team towards a bottom that they have sensationally not yet reached, despite being disastrous since the beginning of October. Today's City is in a vicious circle of injuries, poor form and growing distrust that are fueled by every mistake, every uncertainty, every defeat. There are so many that since the beginning of November the Premier League champions have been traveling at the same pace as bottom-of-the-table Southampton and show no signs of being able to change gear.

THE KEYS

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Aston Villa deserved to win. Dangerous from the kick-off (durán's first chance after 18 seconds), excellently set up by Emery who guessed the Tielemans solution as number 10, the home team took their third success in a row at Villa Park, where they lost in Premier only in the first match of the season against Arsenal and where they achieved their 8th useful result in a row. The excellent Tielemans, Durán and Rogers are the ones who feast most conspicuously on City's remains, but the whole team moves together, capable of exploiting all the demons that haunt their opponents, as on the occasion of the two goals: in the 1-0 Durán's defense makes a mistake in the 16th minute, and Rogers' 2-0 in the 65th minute Kovacic, Walker and the entire City defense show their inadequacy to solve the current problems. Guardiola (nervous once again when the opposing fans sing the chorus predicting his dismissal, a common joke in English stadiums) seems to have exhausted his magic: each of those moves which in past years turned into decisive ones for victories, in recent years two months turn into mistakes. And luck doesn't lend him a hand: before the match Pep found Stones and Akanji but lost Dias and Ederson, and the match of the English defender, important in the role of central defender who organizes the game but out of position at 1-0, it lasted just 45 minutes before being cut short by yet another injury, one that forced Guardiola to give minutes to Walker, who has suddenly aged 10 years in the last 10 games. It is testimony to how City's problems accumulate, how they continue to get worse rather than better, how the best manager in the world and a team full of champions are falling off a precipice without being able to find a foothold. At the end of October they were first in the Premier League and unbeaten, at Christmas they arrive at the worst moment of almost nine years with Guardiola, someone who continues to add disaster to disaster.

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THE MATCH

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Ortega had to make three sensational saves in the first 100 seconds of the match but could do nothing in the 16th minute, when Tielemans launched Rogers and Durán beyond the City defense for a counterattack that the Colombian completed to make it 1-0. It is the result from which the second half starts again, after some timid attempts by the visitors to get back into the game: Guardiola has to start again without Stones, stopped by yet another injury and replaced by Walker. The defense instantly worsened: VAR canceled Durán's second in the 50th minute, but it was Rigers who virtually closed the game in the 65th minute, making it 2-0 after leaving both Kovacic and Walker on the street. When Foden made it 2-1 in the 93rd minute, thanks to an error from Digne, City had already sunk for a while.