“This loss is his”, “Stop overthinking”

Manchester City fans have blamed manager Pep Guardiola after the 1-0 defeat Aston Villa in the Premier League Sunday, October 26. They believe that the Spaniard has made a mistake with his line-up by including certain players in the starting eleven.

City went into the contest at Villa Park unbeaten in their last nine games in all competitions. As expected, they started the game strongly, but Villa grew into the game as the game progressed.

Surprisingly, it was Villa who opened the scoring against a Manchester City side that had scored first in each of their last 10 games. Emiliano Buendia found Matty Cash from a routine corner kick, and the latter curled his shot into the bottom right corner, leaving goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma rooted to the spot.

Guardiola turned to his bench in the second half to regain his legs to find an equaliser, but Villa's defense proved a tough nut to crack, with Emiliano Martínez making three saves for the home side throughout the game.

The result of the match meant that Manchester City have now dropped to fourth place in the Premier League table. It was also the first time they had lost three league games in a row away to Aston Villa since 1975. After the game, furious fans took to X (formerly Twitter) to take out their frustrations on Guardiola, writing:

“This loss is Pep. Stop thinking about it.”

Another tweeted:

“It's Pep's fault… That midfield should never have started the game, not even the Carling Cup.”

A fan bashed him for the lineup.

“Pep is a clown for this formation,” they wrote.

“Peps' brain is so screwed up that he has a strange obsession with seeing Savio lose the ball,” added another.

One wondered why he kept Savinho on the pitch for such a long period.

“This defeat belongs to Pep. Why was Serinho on the pitch for so long?” they asked

“This defeat is Pep, I mean what was this lineup when you have so much depth,” said another.

'We'll learn from this' – Pep Guardiola on Manchester City's 1-0 defeat by Aston Villa

Pep Guardiola remained upbeat about his side's performance despite Sunday's defeat at Villa Park. Speaking after the match, Guardiola said that he was much better in the second half, but admitted that the pressure in the first half was not good. The boss of Manchester City Sky Sports:

“That we are a very good team that played a very good game. We started a very good game. In general we were much better in the second half but in the end we couldn't score. They link very well inside, they play four up front, they follow you in high positions and after linking behind, they have the ability to keep that ball, it's not easy and when you can't win these duels it's more difficult.

He added:

“In the first half the pressure wasn't good, in the second half it was better. We weren't aggressive enough. It was a corner. A good corner and a goal. Listen, it doesn't matter. We can talk about that reaction. Listen, in 10 years here I respect the referees too much. It was a corner and we should have defended that. We can't complain about that from five minutes before. We will improve. I am satisfied good in the Premier League mainly and we are improving. We will learn from this. It's a long journey, we'll try to be close at the end.”

Manchester City Next Wednesday, October 29, he will play against Swansea on the fourth day of the Carabao Cup.