Manager Guardiola admits Man City are struggling, a day after claiming they would win the Premier League.
Aston Villa have dealt a major blow to Manchester City’s Premier League title challenge as Leon Bailey clinched a 1-0 win against the reeling champions at Villa Park.
Bailey’s deflected second-half strike moved Unai Emery’s side above spluttering City into third place on Wednesday night.
Pep Guardiola’s fourth-placed team have gone four league games without a win and sit six points behind leaders Arsenal.
After draws with Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham, the treble winners desperately needed to beat Villa to keep in touch with the Gunners.
Instead, they produced their worst performance of the damaging run and could easily have lost by more than one goal.
City looked weary for long periods but with a trip to Saudi Arabia for the FIFA Club World Cup looming before the hectic Christmas schedule, there is little respite in sight.
Reacting to questions this week about City’s blip, Guardiola boldly proclaimed his team will definitely retain the Premier League title.
The City boss won’t be panicking yet, after all, they erased an eight-point gap to overhaul Arsenal in the closing weeks of last season’s title race.
But this was a major setback to their hopes of an unprecedented fourth successive Premier League crown.
“Aston Villa were better. They played a fantastic game, we struggled to make our process and be more aggressive,” Guardiola said.
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