City's never-ending crisis: Guardiola also out against Aston Villa

Manchester, 21 December – To say that it is a dark moment risks being an understatement, speaking of this Manchester City. Because even today the fragile battleship of Pep Guardiola was defeated in the Premier League, at the hands of Emery's Aston Villa who won 2-1 at home. The dream of the reigning English champions of reaching the fifth title in a row seems to have already vanished. This is, for the Citizens, the third setback after the missteps in the Champions League against Juventus and the derby lost at the Etihad stadium against United. But to understand how much the performance on the pitch has plummeted for the club that only Real Madrid surpasses in terms of turnover, we need to go back a bit: Since the end of October, in a month and a half, City have lost eight times in 11 outings, and have suffered six defeats in their last eight Premier League games. A step that it is not excessive to define as relegation that has made Haaland and his teammates slip to sixth position, -9 from the leaders Liverpool who also have to recover two games. Guardiola is trying in every way to lift the team, but without results. And certainly the many injuries have a weight in the nosedive of the dream team that a year and a half ago triumphed in the Champions League by beating Inter in the final: that of Days, who will be out for a month, is only the latest in a very long series. The most serious, in terms of drop in performance, can only be the one that occurred to the 'lighthouse' Rodri, the Golden Ball. Of course, Pep enjoys infinite credit in Manchester, after eight probably unrepeatable years studded with successes. His contract expires in 2026, then the brilliant coach has already said that he would like to coach a national team or rest for at least a season. But that temporal goal seems very far away, also because in the coming months the sentence on the financial fair play case involving the Citizens is expected, with possible heavy consequences in sporting terms.