Over the past few seasons, Manchester City has been found at the high end of the goalscoring charts. So, it was highly unusual to see them struggle to get more than 5 shots on target in their encounter against Aston Villa. In fact, Man City registered only 2 shots on target, the lowest a Pep Guardiola team has registered in over 500 games!
Although it’s still early days, the 1-0 loss to Aston Villa continues to open the title race wide open for Arsenal, Liverpool and surprisingly Aston Villa, who sit 4 points away from Arsenal, who are currently at the top of the standings.
Following City’s disappointing draw against Spurs, many would’ve expected Guardiola’s side to come out firing in all cylinders to get maximum points. Domestically, the back end of November and the start of December have represented a worrisome time for the Citizens as they haven’t won an EPL match since their 6-1 home win to Bournemouth on the 4th of November. Since then, City have played 4 EPL encounters against Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs and Aston Villa, producing a record of 3 draws and 1 defeat coming last night against Unai Emery's Villa.
What was a match of fine margins at Villa Park, Aston Villa seemed the more dangerous of the two teams. It took a strike from Leon Bailey in the 74th minute to give Villa the lead and saw them hang on for the remainder of the match to get a rare 3 points against Man City.
But with the uncertain form displayed domestically, City won’t be pressing the panic buttons anytime soon despite the congested fixture list for December. The Citizens will be playing in 4 competitions which include the Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League, and the coveted FIFA Club World Cup, which will be the clubs debut appearance in the competition.
While juggling all 4 of these competitions, they’ll be fighting to stay in contention for the league title, something they can learn from their title rivals Liverpool, who won the Club World Cup and the Premier League title in the same season.
City will face Luton Town in their next league encounter, which will be followed by a Champions League fixture against Red Star Belgrade, a couple of matches that City will be looking to get wins from.
Confidence isn’t running low for Guardiola’s men and much more can be achieved by the Citizens, it’s just a matter of time that they kick back into gear.