Erling Haaland shoulders Man City blame as Pep Guardiola's crisis continues
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Erling Haaland said he was to blame after Manchester City's last defeat, prior to Christmas. Here, the City striker was entirely culpable, missing from the penalty spot then watching his header from the rebound ruled out for offside. While City's current crisis cannot be put squarely on the shoulders of one man, no player embodies the malaise more than Haaland, who looks a shadow of the imperious forward who plundered 90 goals in his first two seasons.
Haaland has one goal in his last seven Premier League games and, when he is not scoring, City have few other options to find the net, a damning indictment of such a talented and expensively-assembled squad. City were without eight key men, including No.1 keeper Ederson, defensive trio Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias and John Stones, as well as long-term absentee Rodri. But those enforced absences cannot be used as mitigation for another blunt display from the fallen champions, who were once again devoid of their usual swagger and cutting edge.
It is now one win in 13 games in all competitions for crisis-hit City, an astonishing run from a side who, at the start of the season, were favourites to make it a record-extending five titles in a row. Now they are languishing in sixth place, 11 points behind leaders Liverpool, who have two games in hand, with Champions League qualification their goal now, with the title gone.
Even when they take the lead, as they did here, City simply do not have the confidence to build on it and get themselves into a winning position, as has been customary in the Guardiola era. They went ahead after 15 minutes, Jeremy Doku's ball in behind the Everton defence finding Bernardo Silva, whose angled shot took a deflection off Jarrad Branthwaite, sending the ball spinning into the far corner.
