Just when Manchester City were starting to build some momentum, it all came crashing down.

On Sunday afternoon, debuting their raindrop kit, well there was an air of pathetic fallacy, with Aston Villa finding a leak in Pep Guardiola’s defence early on, enough to secure a 1-0 win, this the Citizens’ third successive defeat at Villa Park, something that last happened in 1966.

Before this, the Sky Blues had been unbeaten in nine matches across all competitions, collecting 13 points out of a possible 15 in the Premier League, leading to many suggesting they were bona fide title challengers again.

Now though, they’ve slipped down to fifth, six points adrift leaders Arsenal, facing second-placed Bournemouth next Sunday, before Liverpool visit the Etihad a week later.

With these huge games on the horizon, which player, who contributed very little at Villa Park, should be cast aside by Guardiola?

Erling Haaland's scoring streak comes to an end

Already this season, Erling Braut Håland has scored 11 goals in the Premier League and four in the Champions League, thereby responsible for more than 65% of all goals Manchester City have managed across the two competitions.

Prior to Sunday’s visit to Villa Park, the goalbot had scored in 12 consecutive appearances for club and country, netting 22 times across these outings, including finding the target in six successive Premier League games.

Of course, that record is 11, set a decade ago by Jamie Vardy, with some suggesting that could soon be under threat, but Håland’s streak is over.

Nevertheless, at his current scoring rate, he is still currently on course to score 46 goals in the Premier League this season, which would smash his own record of 36 set in 2022/23, while he is four away from becoming the 35th member of the competition’s 100 club.

So, while Håland remains simply undroppable and usually unstoppable for Guardiola, one of his teammates underlined why he certainly no longer is in the Midlands on Sunday.

The Manchester City stalwart who struggled at Villa Park

A fair few Manchester City players came in for some scathing criticism following this weekend’s defeat.

Tijjani Reijnders struggled to imitate Rodri as the lone number six, while Savinho, following his sparkling display in mid-week, was labelled ‘largely poor’.

However, it was Bernardo Silva who underwhelmed the most.

The Portuguese international has made more appearances for Guardiola than any other player during his illustrious coaching career (419), but Sunday was certainly not one of his best, as the table below documents.

Shots

0

17th

Attempted dribbles

0

18th

Accurate passes

15

20th

Big chances created

1

1st

Key passes

1

2nd

Interceptions

1

11th

Tackles

0

17th

Duels contested

3

25th

Duels won

1

24th

Touches

24

23rd

The table does not make good reading for Silva, attempting zero dribbles and tackles, winning only one of the three duels he contested, while registering only 24 touches, a mere five more than Gianluigi Donnarumma and three fewer than Jadon Sancho, who came off the bench for the Villans.

In fairness to the captain, he did create one of Manchester City’s two clear opportunities on the day, playing Håland in-behind shortly after Aston Villa’s opener, but he uncharacteristically tamely rolled it straight at Emi Martínez.

Silva was awarded a 4/10 rating by Goal, who stated that ‘his influence waned’ following ‘a bright start’, with the 31-year-old ‘unable to impose himself on proceedings’, thereby swiftly substituted on the hour mark with the team in need of a spark.

The midfielder himself admitted that the Citizens “were really bad defensively,” adding “our pressing was really bad…. it felt like we arrived late… to every duel”.

On the flip side, as recently as Tuesday night, Silva had reiterated his worth to this team by heading home the second against Villarreal in a 2-0 Champions League victory at Estadio de la Cerámica.

Now though, with serious competition for those attacking midfield positions, every performance is under the microscope.

Jérémy Doku as well as fit again duo Omar Marmoush and Rayan Cherki came off the bench on Sunday, with Phil Foden, Oscar Bobb and Savinho having all started; that’s quite the array of options.

Chalkboard

Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

It will be interesting to see who Guardiola deploys for Wednesday night’s EFL Cup trip to Swansea but, with games against Bournemouth, Borussia Dortmund and then Liverpool to come thereafter, Silva’s display in Birmingham could mean he is watching those key clashes from the substitutes bench.