Aston Villa beat crisis-hit Manchester City 2-1 on Saturday to heap more misery on floundering manager Pep Guardiola, who has now suffered nine defeats in his past 12 matches.
Jhon Duran finished off a fine team move to give the home side an early lead and Morgan Rogers doubled Villa’s advantage in the 65th minute.
Phil Foden scored his first Premier League goal of the season in stoppage time to pull one back but it proved to be too little too late.
Guardiola, in the worst run of his glittering career, said Friday that “sooner or later” things will turn around but City’s fear factor has vanished and they have just one win in their past 12 games in all competitions.
City have now lost six Premier League games in the current campaign, twice as many as they suffered during the whole of last season, when they were crowned champions for a fourth straight season.
They have dropped to sixth in the Premier League, nine points behind leaders Liverpool having played two games more, while Villa leapfrogged them into fifth.
Guardiola said he trusted his players despite their shocking form.
“It depends on us,” he told the BBC. “The solution is bring the players back. We have just one central defender fit, that is difficult.”
“We have to think positive and I have incredible trust in the guys,” he added. “Some of them have incredible pride and desire to do it. We have to find a way, step by step, sooner or later to find a way back.”
Guardiola made six changes to the team side that lost last week’s Manchester derby, bringing in goalkeeper Stefan Ortega and reshaping his defence with Rico Lewis, John Stones and Manuel Akanji.
Mateo Kovacic and Jack Grealish also returned.
But the defending champions started the match in chaotic fashion and could have been behind with just 15 seconds on the clock.
Untidy work from Josko Gvardiol allowed John McGinn to steal the ball and he fed Duran, whose shot from outside the box was pushed behind by Ortega.
Villa were millimetres away from taking the lead from the resulting corner, with Ortega, in for injured first-choice goalkeeper Ederson, producing a superb save to deny Pau Torres.
City then settled and their possession numbers topped 75 percent but they created little.
Duran strikes again
Instead it was Villa who took the lead in the 16th minute through Duran after a superb team move.
Youri Tielemans delivered a wonderful defence-splitting pass to Rogers, who burst through City’s backline with ease before squaring for Duran and the Colombian international finished crisply for his seventh Premier League goal of the season.
Foden tested Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez in the 35th minute after an incisive move involving Lewis.
And Gvardiol squandered a glorious chance moments before half-time, heading a Grealish cross over the bar.
Guardiola brought on Kyle Walker for Stones at the break but Villa again took control, this time enjoying much more of the ball.
Minutes into the second half Matty Cash lashed an attempt into the side netting after a speedy attack before Duran had a strike ruled out for offside.
Rogers, formerly of Manchester City, hit the foot of the post just before the hour mark after an intricate team move down the left.
But Emery’s men doubled their lead 20 minutes into the second half, with Rogers finishing unerringly from a McGinn pass.
City created little as they searched for a way back into the game until Foden pounced for a late consolation goal.
Emery told TNT Sports that Villa were “feeling strong”.
“We played the first half very well,” he said. “In the second half we kept possession more and getting in the box to score the second goal, we imposed and dominated more.”
