Aston Villa handed Manchester City a 2-1 defeat on Saturday, adding to the woes of Pep Guardiola's side, who have now endured nine losses in their last 12 matches.
The Citizens were aiming to recover from their dramatic 2-1 home defeat to cross-town rivals Manchester United in their previous league match, but they were unable to do so, as the Villans stood firm despite a late push from the defending champions.
Jhon Duran capped off a superb team effort to put the hosts ahead early, and Morgan Rogers extended Villa's lead in the 65th minute before Phil Foden scored a late consolation goal for City.
The defeat saw Man City leapfrogged by Unai Emery's side in the Premier League standings and leaves them nine points behind Liverpool, who now have two games in hand on them.
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Man City continue downward spiral
Against Villa, City's attack was largely ineffective, as illustrated by Erling Haaland not recording a single touch in the opposition's area until the 90th minute.
With this defeat, Man City has now lost nine times in their past 12 games across all competitions, a significant downturn having only lost eight in their preceding 106 matches.
OptaJoe revealed that the last time other selected clubs had a run of 9 defeats in 12 games, were Chelsea in 2023, Tottenham in 1997, Arsenal in 1977, Man United in 1961 and Liverpool in 1954.
Teams led by Guardiola have only lost more matches in a season twice: 12 times in 2019-20 and 10 times in 2016-17, both with Manchester City.
Additionally, City have now failed to win in five consecutive Premier League away games for the first time, drawing one and losing four.
The last time they went more consecutive away matches without a win (six games) was in December 2015 while Manuel Pellegrini was still at the helm.
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Guardiola post-match comments after defeat to Villa
Speaking to the media following the loss at Villa Park, Guardiola was quizzed if his side will be able to bounce back and find results.
The City boss responded: "Yeah. It can come, it can not come. It depends on us. The solution is bring the players back.
"We have just one central defender fit, that is difficult. We are going to try next game - another opportunity and we don't think much further than that."
When asked if there are deeper reasons for their poor results other than injuries, Guardiola revealed: "Of course there are more reasons. We concede the goals we don't concede in the past, we [don't] score the goals we score in the past. Football is not just one reason.
"There are a lot of little factors. Step by step, we have nice personalities in the team and sooner or later we are going to find it."
Man City will play host to Everton on Boxing Day before ending the year with a trip to the King Power Stadium to face Leicester City on December 29.
Devesh Jaganath
