Haaland or bust? Man City need to ‘step up’ as striker’s goal run ends

His and Manchester City’s disappointing afternoon was summed up by Erling Haaland’s sight of him gingerly hobbling away after a late equaliser was decidedly unavailable at Villa Park on Sunday.

The Norway frontman has scored 24 goals for the club and country so far this season, but his 12-game scoring streak and City’s nine-game unbeaten run came to a halt in the Midlands.

After defeating City in December, Villa defeated City, and Unai Emery’s side fought back to win another match.

Pep Guardiola’s team had a bright start, but some of them appeared lethargic, and none of his team’s players attempted to score goals as their star striker did.

Haaland and his team-mates returned to the north west with a bad taste in their mouths the week after he launched his YouTube channel and revealed his love for raw milk.

Guardiola acknowledged that the team needs to make a significant improvement given that this season we haven’t scored many goals. They defended really well, which makes it difficult to do this today. We were close, and we were there. We were not as productive in the games we won.

Although they are not in the Champions League, they have been a top-notch team for many years and will compete very well. They behave well in a good way.

With 11 goals to his name, Haaland is currently a winner in the Premier League, but his team’s next-highest top scorer, who is not even a city’s player, does not even play for them.

Tijjani Reijnders, Phil Foden, Matheus Nunes, and Rayan Cherki each scored one goal each with the unlucky Frenchman’s two goals at Burnley’s Etihad Stadium.

Boss Guardiola had requested that his wingers and midfielders step in, but they were unsuccessful, which could have resulted in a potentially disastrous defeat in May.

Haaland did have some good shots against Villa, but they were unable to take them, missing a crucial opportunity right away when his team broke down, passing through and receiving a low shot that Emiliano Martinez smothered.

The offside flag intervened to the rescue of the Argentine goalkeeper who had earlier saved another Haaland header from the air in the second half.

Guardiola said he hadn’t spoken to his player, but “hopefully he is fine,” and that he had slumped down the tunnel with his head bent at full-time in the aftermath.

City can’t begin tolerating the idea of being without their main man at any point this season with 15 goals so far and 34 in an injury-hit campaign last term.

Emery, the villa manager, stated: “We tried to get duels with him intelligently and tactically with the power we showed.”

The goalkeeper and defensive cover also assisted, adding, “Then.” To stop him, we needed everything.

Due to the injury crisis at City, Guardiola entered the transfer market in January signing four players, and he added six more in the summer as a result. However, only Gianluigi Donnarumma and Reijnders started for Villa.

Omar Marmoush and Cherki, who both recovered from injuries in the second half, are now required to step up to relieve Haaland’s burden.

City fell to fifth place and six points behind league leaders Arsenal after beating Crystal Palace on Saturday, champions Liverpool, who were at Brentford in the infancy of the season.

There are alarming signs for City in the title race. The Villa team lost their third game of the campaign, the last of which was a run-in in 2007-08 against Villa.

After finishing runners-up in the previous three seasons, Guardiola’s apprentice Mikel Arteta and his side finally appear to have finished, leaving them with little room for error even at this early stage.

The team’s defensive efforts were “really bad” and players arrived two seconds late in every duel, according to Captain Bernardo Silva, who felt the side had created chances.

At this point, Guardiola, who has won six Premier League titles under his leadership, was not getting into the discussion about the title.

He continued, “We try to close the gap.” Arsenal have been strong for a long time. The issue is how to improve even more.

It is very long, in my opinion. There are many teams there, and we try to play our game. Bournemouth is doing very well there.