Manchester City’s stunning slump continued Saturday with a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa in the Premier League. 

Goals from Jhon Duran and Morgan Rogers at Villa Park consigned the four-time defending champion to a ninth defeat in 12 games in a season that is unravelling. Pep Guardiola’s team has won just once during that run.

“We have to stay positive, even though it’s difficult, and we have to keep working hard,” City striker Erling Haaland said.  

Phil Foden pulled a goal back for City in stoppage time, but it wasn’t enough to spark a late comeback.  

City dropped to sixth in the standings — nine points below leader Liverpool, having played two games more. Villa climbed to fifth.  

City’s remarkable fall shows little sign of stopping, with Guardiola admitting last week that he had not been good enough to turn his team’s form around.  

Defeat meant the once-dominant City is without a win in any of its last eight away games in all competitions. While it looks unlikely to win a fifth-straight title, a place in the top four and Champions League qualification could also be in jeopardy.  

“We concede the goals we don’t concede in the past, we (don’t) score the goals we score in the past,” Guardiola said. “We have to think positive and I have incredible trust in the guys. Some of them have incredible pride and desire to do it. We have to find a way, step by step, sooner or later to find a way back.”  

Only once under Guardiola has City managed to win the title when losing six times in the league. That was in the 2020-21 campaign, when it lost two of its last three games, having already been confirmed champion.  

City lost nine times when Liverpool won the title in ’19-20, but its sixth defeat didn’t come until the February of that campaign. Guardiola also lost six times in the league in his first season in English soccer in ’16-17 and City finished third in the standings.  

The latest defeat could have been even more emphatic against a dominant Villa. Duran scored his sixth goal in as many starts in the 16th minute from Rogers’ assist.  Duran had a goal disallowed for offside in the second half and Rogers hit the post before doubling Villa’s lead in the 65th.  

Foden’s goal in the third minute of added time came too late for City.