Man City in crisis with no clear escape and Pep Guardiola doesn’t need this sh*t

Manchester City are now in crisis after a fourth consecutive defeat and Pep Guardiola must be wondering whether he can be bothered with this sh*t.

It was as though Mateo Kovacic had taken on board all of the concerns, doubts and criticism surrounding Manchester City ahead of the game – which will increase markedly after it despite his best efforts – and took it upon himself to put them to bed in one fell swoop.

He prevented a Brighton counter-attack by reading and intercepting a pass like Rodri, dropped a shoulder and went by his man in midfield like an in-form Phil Foden and then played an eye-of-the-needle pass through for Erling Haaland that Kevin De Bruyne will have been nodding in appreciation at from the bench. A wonderful assist that for 78 minutes looked as though it would trivialise a blip that was threatening to morph, but now very much has morphed, into a full-blown crisis.

Haaland powered away from the Brighton defenders and forced the ball underneath Bart Verbruggen before poking it into the roof of the net under pressure from Jan Paul van Hecke.

The City striker had other opportunities, with one smashed shot on the angle deflected onto the post by Verbruggen, while Savinho could have put them three or four up had his Riyad Mahrez-like build-up play matched the finishing of his predecessor on the right wing.

City were comfortable enough to prompt Alan Smith to later ask on co-commentary: “Who saw this coming after the first half?” Errrm, most people?

Substitutes Joao Pedro and Matt O’Riley had just scored the goals to turn the game on its head, and there was a noticeable upturn in intensity after the break thanks to the introduction of Carlos Baleba and a further increase when Pedro and O’Riley came on, but the first half was less a display of City dominance and more one of Brighton allowance.

Particularly after City crumbled against Sporting in the Champions League, it always felt as though as soon as Fabian Hurzeler’s side got anything going they would cause City problems.

The City defenders got themselves in a right mess for the first goal. Van Hecke found Kaoru Mitoma in acres of space on the left with a switch of play for the 427th time, and although Danny Welbeck couldn’t sort his feet out to get a shot away after the cross found him in the middle, neither could the three defenders who all waited for one of the other two to clear the ball, allowing Pedro to muscle between them and bobble a shot over Ederson. It was really, really bad.

And it had been coming. City were there for the taking, and were taken shortly after the equaliser. Baleba, Welbeck and Pedro linked up well, but very easily, before Pedro found Matt O’Riley, who took a nice first touch before side-footing the ball past Ederson. Not a bad way to mark your first Premier League appearance.

Brighton scored from two of their eight big chances in the game, the most an opposition team has ever had against Pep Guardiola Manchester City side in the Premier League, to condemn the champions to a fourth consecutive defeat; the first time that’s happened since a run between April and August 2006 under Stuart Pearce.

Make no mistake, this is a crisis, and one with no easily identifiable path through despite the respite a head-clearing international break may well provide.

As Guardiola said ahead of this game, “we know why” Manchester City are struggling. Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji, Ruben Dias, John Stones, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, Jeremy Doku, Jack Grealish and Oscar Bobb were all either not included in the squad through injury or not fit enough to start against Brighton.

That’s six of the XI that lost the second leg of the Champions League quarter final against Real Madrid last season not starting here. No matter the depth of the squad or of the owner’s pockets, having that many unavailable is always going to result in a downturn, because of the quality of the absentees and the fatigue of those that remain which was plainly evident in the second half against Sporting and again here against Brighton.

The problem for Guardiola and City is that so many injuries can bring about a self-perpetuating cycle, where more players get injured as a result of either playing too much or with niggles, meaning there’s a temptation to rush returnees back, who then play too frequently because they have to and get injured again. This is going to be an issue, if not for the whole season then a significant part of it.

Guardiola has refused to talk about his future amid reports he turned England down and is now being wined and dined by Brazil. But he must now be more tempted by an exit than ever before, with the size of the rebuild required at Manchester City a hugely daunting prospect for a manager with nothing left to prove, whose energy looks set to be sapped more in this season than perhaps any previous campaign.

He may well be looking at this and thinking ‘I don’t need this sh*t’, and make no mistake, in relative terms, this is sh*t from Manchester City.