Pep Guardiola admits Manchester City is struggling inexplicably

On Sunday, Manchester City suffered their third straight away defeat in the Premier League. Southampton beat the visitors 1-0, courtesy of the only goal from Che Adams' spectacular strike. This also marked his first goal for the club.

On Thursday, Pep Guardiola's City had thumped the new league champions, Liverpool, 4-0 at Etihad Stadium. That same City side subsequently suffered a loss against a team that is ranked 13th in the league this season. It marked the fourth loss out of their last nine league games. This is something that the 49-year old Spaniard is finding hard to digest.

Guardiola said that he doesn't understand why his boys have lost nine games in the league this season. This is the most number of defeats that the former Barcelona coach has ever witnessed in a single season.

In an interview after the match, he said, "We played more than good but it is not enough to win the games. We cannot say we are not a team who scores goals this season. We are leading in goals. We create a lot of chances. We are a team who concedes less - no team conceded as few chances as us but we lost a lot of games. It's difficult even for me to find a reason why but you have to insist and talk about the game, the way they play and try to do more, concede as few as possible, and score upfront."

According to the BBC, City has faced 249 shots in this year's Premier League, which is the fewest of all the teams. Liverpool, who have conceded nine goals fewer than City, has faced 59 shots more than Guardiola's side.

Manchester City fans are finding their current performance more surprising because of the fact that they had won the previous two Premier League campaigns in 2017-18 and 2018-19 with sheer dominance.

They accumulated a record tally of 100 points in 2017. Last year, they amassed 98 points. This year, with five matches to go, the Sky Blues haven't even crossed the 70-point mark. They are currently trailing 23 points behind the Reds.

Amid such hard times, the City coach believes that his team will bounce back soon. Although they have fallen short in the Premier League title race, Manchester City has won the Carabao Cup this season. They are leading Real Madrid 2-1 in the UEFA Champions League round-of-16. Also, they have an FA Cup semi-final scheduled against Arsenal. So technically, the Sky Blues still have the opportunity to finish their current season with three titles.