Man City boss Pep Guardiola defends out-of-form striker Erling Haaland

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola once again leapt to the defence of Erling Haaland, saying the club's current crisis cannot be blamed on the misfiring striker.

Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa was the ninth in 12 matches in all competitions for City and the Norwegian forward has failed to score in five of their past six games.

The Premier League champions have slipped to seventh place in the table, having lost six times in the league, and trail leaders Liverpool, who have a game in hand, by 12 points.

After the defeat at Villa Park, Haaland, who has scored 108 goals for City since signing in 2022, said: “First I’m looking at myself. I haven’t been scoring my chances. I have to do better, I haven’t been good enough.”

But ahead of their Boxing Day clash with Everton at the Etihad Stadium, his manager defended Haaland, saying “without him we will be even worse”.

The Spaniard said: “It’s about us, not just one player. When in the past we score goals and Erling was so prolific, helping us, it was because of the team.

“And when you have problems at the back, in the middle, it is for everyone, it is a team, it is not about one player. It would be easy, if it was just one player, the reason why. It’s not about that.

“Erling is so important for us, will be so important for us, has been. [We have to] try to do things better, to use him better.”

Guardiola added: “In this situation, this tendency for all of us [is to say] ‘the reason why is this one, and this one and this one’. It’s about us, about everyone.

“The guys are running, making effort more than ever. All the tendency ‘it’s because we don’t run, because we don’t fight, the reason why is this situation or this player or this manager’ … It’s not about that.

“It’s many little details or big details that make all together not as good as we were. But we have another opportunity on Boxing Day.”

Meanwhile, Everton manager Sean Dyche has said his side are in no danger of underestimating City, despite their woeful run of form.

After losing their first four games of the season, Everton are on a run of just two defeats in their past 12 matches.

But Dyche insisted that his side will still be wary of City, winners of an unprecedented four successive league titles.

“They have enjoyed so much success under Pep over the years that everybody seems to be under this impression that it's when, not if, it turns back,” said Dyche.

“I don’t know all of Pep's history, but I think it’s unlikely he’s had too many spells like this. You’d think at some point it happens, even to the best, and he is arguably one of the best ever, but for him to have a testing period actually shows how tough the game is even for the top sides.”

The Englishman added: “The details, even for the top teams, if you don't get them right, then things don't work out for you. They'll be trying to correct that.

Aston Villa 2 Manchester City 1 - in pictures

“We're in the process of correcting somewhat what we were doing. We still need to win more games, obviously, and score more goals.

“It’s not like you go there and think, ‘We’re going to win just because’. We've got to go and deliver a performance. We’ve got to play hard, we’ve got to play strong.

“They haven’t all become terrible players overnight. He [Guardiola] certainly is not a terrible manager.”

Dyche will be missing veteran full-back Ashley Young, suspended after a fifth yellow card, for the game.

But his absence means club captain Seamus Coleman is set to make his first start since the end of August following an injury-plagued campaign for the 36-year-old Irishman.

“He’s been very unlucky this season,” said Dyche. “When he came back for pre-season, super fit, we spoke about his other options and he said, ‘No, no, I’m clear-minded. I’m going to continue playing’.

“He signed another contract and he held his end of the bargain without a shadow of a doubt.”

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