How Manchester City went from world’s best to straw men in 12 months

Rodri’s injury, Erling Haaland and Pep Guardiola all play a role in this champion team’s profound collapse.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola (left) and Erling Haaland react after the Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester. Picture: Martin Rickett/PA Wire.

Eight weeks, 12 games and nine defeats into Manchester City’s descent into the footballing upside down, Pep Guardiola has at least identified the problem.

“We haven’t scored the goals we scored before, and we have conceded the goals we didn’t concede,” Guardiola told the BBC cameras after the defeat at Villa Park on Saturday, speaking in that now-familiar watery, rambling drawl, the voice of a man being encouraged by paramedics to talk about defensive injuries and midfield duels in order to keep himself awake until the ambulance arrives.