Pep Guardiola accepts blame for Man City's woeful form

Jhon Duran put Villa ahead on 16 minutes before Morgan Rogers added another in the second half to give Unai Emery's side â- who had a number of good chances to increase the scoreline â- a comfortable lead.

Man City did get one back in second-half injury time but it was too little too late as Guardiola's side continued their terrible run of form in recent times.

It is now just one win in 12 matches in all competitions with both Fulham and Bournemouth having the opportunity to climb above the Citizens if they win their matches on Sunday.

That would knock Man City, who are currently sixth, down to eighth position after 17 matches with the Citizens in full on crisis mode.

"We have to continue [working to put it right]. The first [person] I'm looking at is myself, I haven't been doing things good enough. I have to do better, it's a lot on me and I haven't been good enough," Guardiola said.

Haaland, who has scored 18 goals in 24 matches this season for Man City, has only scored one in six matches for the Citizens and the Norway international was self-critical after their match against Aston Villa.

On Guardiola, Haaland said: "He won the Premier League six times in seven years, so we will never forget that. He will find the solutions. He has been doing that every single year. We still believe in him, we have to work harder than ever right now.

But Guardiola refused to agree with the Man City striker's assessment of his own performances, the Citizens boss said: "I'm not agreeing with him.

"Without him we would be even worse. But I like the players feeling that way. It's the only chance that we have to get better. There are two options: judge yourself or blame. I'm not agreeing with Erling because we tried and at the end he needs to be delivered the right balls in the right spots. We will recover and fight for the next one."

On the confidence levels in the squad, Haaland continued: "Of course, they are not the best. We know how important confidence is and you can see that it affects every human being. That is how it is, we have to continue and stay positive even though it is difficult. We have to keep working hard."

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