New year, new City? Pep's crisis demands an overhaul

It was neither the most extreme nor most expensive piece of scrambled thinking by anyone of a Manchester City persuasion.

- RICHARD JOLLY

Yet as Pep Guardiola assessed a run of results that would have seemed beyond anyone’s comprehension two months ago, there was a statistic he kept on quoting. “When you lose eight [in] 10,” he said. It is actually eight in 11, but that is scant consolation.

Where did it come from? Where does it end? Not against Manchester United. Just when City thought they were out of crisis, they pulled themselves back in. The managerial godfather blamed himself. “I am the boss, I am the manager, I am not good enough,” said a self-flagellating Guardiola. “That is the truth.”

His grasp of some facts betrayed him. Not others. “Maybe in one year or a year and a half we were able to lose eight games,” he said. City only lost five matches in the whole of last season, six in 2018-19, seven each in 2017-18 and 2022-23, eight in 2020-21 and again in 2021-22. Now it is eight since 30 October, along with a draw against Feyenoord that felt like a defeat. Not long ago, City were undefeated in 32 Premier League matches and 26 Champions League games. “We were top of the league and the only team unbeaten in Europe,” said Guardiola. Now only Southampton have as few points since the start of November.