LONDON: Manchester City’s dismal run of form, with one win in eight Premier League games, is down to the whole team and not one player, manager Pep Guardiola said on Tuesday, with struggling str­iker Erling Haaland not to blame.

The Premier League champions, on a unprecedented run of four successive English titles, saw their campaign go from bad to worse with a 2-1 loss at Aston Villa on Saturday — their ninth defeat in 12 matches in all competitions.

The reverse also marked previously prolific striker Haaland’s fifth game without a goal in six matches.

City’s current streak, which leaves the champions seventh in the standings and 12 points off leaders Liverpool, coincides with Haaland scoring just twice, after the Norwegian netted 10 times in their opening five games.

“It’s about us, it’s not just about one player,” Guardiola told a press conference ahead of Thursday’s game with Everton. “So when in the past we scored goals and Erling was so prolific in helping us, it’s because of the team. And when you have problems at the back, in the middle, it’s for everyone.

“If it was just one player, the reason why, it would be easy. It’s not about that. Erling is so important for us, will be so important for us, has been, and we try to do the things better, to use him better.

“In this situation, this tendency for all of us [is to say] ‘the reason why is this one, and this one and this one’. It’s about us, about everyone The guys are running, making effort more than ever. All the tendency ‘it’s because we don’t run, because we don’t fight, the reason why is this situation or this player or this manager’.

“It’s not about that. It’s many little details or big details that all together make us not as good as we were. But we have another opportunity on Boxing Day to try and win time for the players to come back and in a certain time we’ll be better.”

Everton may be 15th in the standings, 11 points behind City, but they do have a better defensive record than Guardiola’s side, and have kept five clean sheets in their last six games.

While City players will have some time with their families over Christmas, with the team playing on Dec. 26, there are sacrifices to be made.

“We train today, we train tomorrow night. We stay over here and we are going to play on Boxing Day,” Guardiola said. “Today we’ll be at home with the families and tomorrow we’ll be with the families during the morning and the night we’ll be here. Hopefully they want to be here because it’s our job and our duty.”

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2024