PEP GUARDIOLA saw his Manchester City flops fall to yet another defeat against Aston Villa.
Goals from Jhon Duran and ex-City star Morgan Rogers – who also set up the first goal – were enough to condemn Guardiola’s side to a sixth Premier League defeat of the season.
That figure is DOUBLE the three games they lost in the league throughout all of last season’s title-winning campaign.
However, one record has seen City match records that have not been seen for more than 60 years at two major rivals.
With their latest 2-1 defeat – which saw them drop down to sixth in the table – City have now lost nine of their last 12 games in all competitions.
Many of their big six rivals have not endured such tough runs for many many decades, as revealed by OptaJoe figures.
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Of their top six rivals, Chelsea experienced a similarly horrible run only on May 25th 2023, when the club sacked Graham Potter to place Frank Lampard in interim charge of the team.
Tottenham are the next most recent team to suffer that run, though it came all the way back on Boxing Day of 1997.
Going back another 20 years sees Arsenal with that horror run of results on March 23rd 1977 – some 47 years ago.
However, this pales in comparison to cross-town rivals Manchester United, who have not suffered a run of results so poor since December 16 1961.
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Remarkably, Liverpool have an even more impressive consistency with their last run of nine defeats in 12 coming all the way back in January 23rd 1954.
Watching the game today, fans believed Guardiola was on the verge of tears as he was also seen letting his fury get the better of him by throwing a bottle at the floor.
Another stat compounding their struggles shows that if Southampton pick up a point against Fulham tomorrow, then the Prem’s bottom side would have picked up more points than City since the start of November.
Speaking after the game, the Spanish boss remained defiant by insisting his squad can play their way out of the rut.
He said: “We made a really good first half, second half we dropped.
“We changed our pressing for the reason John [Stones] could not continue. Congratulations Aston Villa and keep going.
“In the mid-block, they are so strong. We have good moments, we had chances, more chances than in the [Manchester] United game, but in the second half we dropped and our pressing was not good enough.
“We struggled a little bit and we could not drop them well. We found a goal in the end, but too late. We struggle to score and we concede goals.
“We have nice personalities in the team and sooner or later we are going to find it.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
