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Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City are labouring through the opposite of their long winning runs as he rued football’s parallel lives.
City were beaten 2-1 by Aston Villa on Saturday to suffer their ninth defeat in a 12-game spell when they have only triumphed once.
And it left manager Guardiola reflecting that it has turned their usual form on its head.
“Always when we win a lot of games and titles I say we are going to lose games,” he said. “When we won 13 or 14 games or 10 games and we lose one or draw one and it is, ‘what happened? Why you draw or lose a game?’ So it is football.
“We won a lot, it was exceptional, and now we are living the parallel. We didn’t expect [it], I didn’t personally and I don’t know what will be the outcome after that, so life gives you that. We have to deal with it.”
Defender Rico Lewis believes City are struggling mentally when they let in the opening goal in a game, which he feels can trigger further problems.
He explained: “When we concede it’s like we’re not allowed to concede. As if it’s not a normal thing that’s part of the game.
“Everyone in world football concedes a goal but because we hold ourselves to such high standards, when we concede we’re so disappointed in ourselves, that’s when you’ll see more mistakes come.
“At the start of the season we conceded a few goals first but we just bounced back straight away. That can be down to confidence, many things, tired legs. But we need to get back to the way we want to be.”
