Pep Guardiola reveals the ‘solution’ to Man City’s woes as beleaguered boss bemoans injury crisis & confirms John Stones blow after Aston Villa defeat

City suffered their ninth defeat in 12 games in all competitions after losing at Villa Park on Saturday. While manager Guardiola cut a forlorn figure after failing to pick up any points yet again, the Spaniard said their fortunes will improve when their injury list lessens. Indeed, defender John Stones could not return for the second half after a recurrence of a previous injury.

He told BBC Match of the Day: "It can come, it can not come. It depends on us. The solution is bring the players back. We have just one central defender fit, that is difficult. We are going to try next game - another opportunity and we don't think much further than that."

On Stones' injury, he told TNT Sports: "We make a really good first half, second half we dropped. We changed our pressing for the reason John [Stones] could not continue. Congratulations Aston Villa and keep going."

In addition to Stones, City are without the injured Oscar Bobb, Nathan Ake, Ruben Dias, and 2024 Ballon d'Or winner Rodri. While having them back will help, the Cityzens are in their biggest crisis for decades and something special is needed to stop the rot. It seems like their Premier League title defence is over.

City, who dropped to sixth in the Premier League, next face lowly Everton on Thursday as they try to turn their form around. They are currently nine points adrift of league leaders Liverpool and they have played two games more than Arne Slot's team.