Pep Guardiola addresses Erling Haaland injury fears after Man City striker's sickening collision with woodwork & admits 'our job is not to watch the title' after damaging Aston Villa defeat

Haaland had plenty of chances against Villa on Sunday but failed to make the opportunities count, having had a shot saved easily by Emiliano Martinez shortly after Cash had put the Villans ahead in the 19th minute. The Norwegian goal machine then saw a goal disallowed for offside late on before he painfully collided with the Villa post.

Haaland headed down the tunnel with his head bowed at full time amidst concerns that he had sustained a late injury in the 1-0 defeat. However, Pep Guardiola, despite not having spoken to the striker after the loss, said "hopefully he is fine" when asked about the Norway international.

City failed to capitalise upon Liverpool's loss to Brentford on Saturday night as they looked to keep the pressure on Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table. The Gunners are now four points clear of Bournemouth in second and six clear of City, who have lost three of their opening nine Premier League games.

Guardiola, though, is refusing to be drawn into talk of the title at this stage of the season. "We try to close [the gap]," Guardiola added. "Arsenal have been solid for many years. The concern is how we improve better to be close. From my experience, it is so long. There are many teams there - Bournemouth are doing really well - and we try to do our game. Our job is not to watch the title. If they win all their games and win the Premier League, congratulate them. But I feel that the team is alive, it's good."

Aston Villa head coach Unai Emery has admitted that his side went to great lengths to minimise Haaland's influence on Sunday. Haaland has scored 11 league goals already this season, at least five more than any other player, but Villa became just the second team, after Tottenham, to shut out the City hitman this season.

"We tried tactically and in individual performance to get duels with him, intelligently, with the power we showed," Emery said. "Then we had some help from defensive cover and also the goalkeeper. We needed everything to stop him."

Villa showed great resolve to get back to winning ways on Sunday. Despite dominating for large periods, Villa fell to a 2-1 loss to Go Ahead Eagles in the Europa League on Thursday night, a result that ended a five-game winning streak in all competitions.

While Guardiola has eased fears that Haaland suffered any serious injury after his late collision on Sunday afternoon, the City boss may opt to make personnel changes for the League Cup in midweek. City travel to Swansea on Wednesday as they look to book their spot in the quarter-finals.

Both Omar Marmoush and Rayan Cherki featured from the bench at Villa Park at the weekend, the former coming on in the 84th minute and the latter replacing fellow summer signing Tijjani Reijnders in the 76th minute. The duo have scored just one league goal between them this season, owing to an injury-hit start to the campaign, and City need the pair to start pulling their weight in front of goal to ease the scoring burden on Haaland.

After City's trip to Swansea on Wednesday night, the Cityzens have three successive home games between the weekend's visit of high-flying Bournemouth and the international break. City resume European duties with a home game against Borussia Dortmund next month and then host defending champions Liverpool as both sides look to put together a proper challenge to Arsenal for the title.