LEICESTER CITY 2, MANCHESTER CITY 1
Manchester City fell to their second consecutive Premier League defeat, and third in four, after a 2-1 defeat at Leicester City to fall to third place in the Premier League – seven points behind Liverpool.
Embed from Getty ImagesIt was a Boxing Day to forget for City who took the lead through Bernado Silva only to fail again at the King Power Stadium as they conceded with the first shot on target faced for the third time in four Premier League games and then contrived to lose with Fabian Delph sent off late on.
Despite a richly assembled squad, City have had serious injury layoffs and had absorbed the loss of several important players in the early months of the season.
But the biggest loss of all has been that of Fernandinho, the one player who doesn’t have a back-up in Pep’s squad.
Nethertheless, Guardiola was able to welcome back some key players from layoffs.
Kevin De Bruyne made his first Premier League start of the season while Sergio Aguero replaced Gabriel Jesus and Danilo replaced Kyle Walker who made high profile errors in the Crystal Palace defeat before Christmas.
David Silva also returned from injury but started on the bench although things looked initially promising as the Blues took an early lead.
Manchester City badly missing injured Fernandinho against Leicester City
Without Fernandinho, though, City lacked fluidity in midfield and the defensive problems that blighted Pep Guardiola’s first season in charge at the club appear to have returned with a vengeance in the club’s poorest run since the Spaniard took over.
City haven’t kept a clean sheet in nine games since beating West Ham at the London Stadium on November 24.
Full back appears to be the problem position again as City’s makeshift defence contained second choice defenders who lack forward dynamism in Danilo and Fabian Delph.
Guardiola selected both Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling to provide width but Aguero was still ring-rusty after his injury lay-off and City lacked his clinical best.
De Bruyne didn’t seem fully fit after his own injury issues while Ilkay Gundogan was the latest player to fill in for Fernandinho but couldn’t get City going with many key passes going astray.
It had all started promisingly after Aguero had laid the ball on to meet Bernardo Silva’s run which ended in a goal from 11 yards out but the lead lasted just five minutes.
Leicester boss Claude Puel changed things at half time and City lacked the intensity to react.
City conceded again from their opponent’s first shot on target as Leicester levelled up the scores just five minutes later through Marc Albrighton who met Jamie Vardy’s cross with a header from 7 yards out with Delph all at sea.
Aguero and Sane had half chances while Vardy and James Maddison were denied by Ederson and Foxes midfielder could have given away another goal for Hamza Choudhury at Ederson’s near post.
Ricardo Pereira got in front of Delph but was bailed out by Aymeric Laporte but Pereira hit lacklustre City with a hammer blow from the corner after a poor attempt to clear nine minutes from time with a rising rocket from the edge of the area.
It would turn out to be the winner as City just could not get beat the Foxes with a shot.
And Delph, whose mistakes gifted the Foxes victory, completed his miserable day by being sent off for following through on a tackle on Pereira.
The makeshift left back will miss games against Southampton, Liverpool, and Rotherham unless an appeal is successful.