“We started the season with cleans sheets, we conceded five goals in I don’t know how many games. It was incredible how stable it was. We have players to play with the ball and it’s not a team built to just defend a lot of the time. But you have to make that effort to change that dynamic.”
Pep Guardiola is fast running out of time to change the worst defensive dynamic of his entire managerial career. The implications of defeat to Leicester were two-fold: first, Manchester City have not kept a clean sheet in their last nine games – the longest such run Guardiola has ever endured as a manager. You have to go back as far as October 2008 and the Spaniard’s first few months at Barcelona for his only other nine-game spell without a clean sheet.
Second, Guardiola has never lost three consecutive league games as a coach. He has lost two in a row twice at City, Bayern Munich and Barca, but never three. As unlikely as it seems that Southampton will complete this maiden hat-trick, the champions must avoid complacency at St Mary’s on Sunday.
After all, Saints gave City a fairly torrid time last season. They required stoppage-time goals to overcome them both home and away, as Guardiola’s side struggled to break down a stubborn, resolute defence. And Nathan Redmond will want to avoid another bollocking from an opposition manager.
A side that dropped 14 Premier League points in all of last season has already dropped 13 after 19 games this campaign. Liverpool’s dominance means the margin for error is already minuscule. Guardiola is walking a tightrope.