End of an era? Man City loses fourth straight game and Guardiola faces some tough questions

Manchester City has never had it this bad under Pep Guardiola.

Guardiola has never had it this bad in his managerial career.

A sense of crisis is looming over the champions of England after they lost a fourth straight game in all competitions, 2-1 at Brighton, and slipped five points behind Liverpool in the Premier League on Saturday. Liverpool beat Aston Villa 2-0 thanks to goals by Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah.

Second-placed City hasn’t lost four games in a row since 2006 — two years before the Abu Dhabi takeover of the club and 10 years before Guardiola’s game-changing arrival on the blue side of Manchester.

As for Guardiola, widely regarded as the world’s best coach, he has never lost four straight matches anywhere in his illustrious time in management that began in 2007.

The closest he has come was in the 2014-15 season when, at Bayern Munich, his team lost in a penalty shootout in the German Cup followed by three straight defeats — two in the Bundesliga, when Bayern had already clinched the title, and once in the Champions League.

So, Guardiola was asked, is this the end of the era, after leading City to an unprecedented four straight top-flight league titles?

“It’s what the people want, right?” he posed. “That’s normal — we won a lot. I would just like to have all the squad (available).”

That won’t be happening anytime soon considering star center midfielder Rodri, this year’s Ballon d’Or winner, is out for the season with an ACL injury. Guardiola also had his best four center backs — Ruben Dias, John Stones, Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake — unavailable, while playmaker Kevin De Bruyne is clearly not sharp or fit enough on his return from injury.

“When we play bad, I am the first to say, ‘Oh, oh, I don’t like it.’ But I don’t have that feeling,” Guardiola said.

Indeed, City was dominant in the first half and went in front when Erling Haaland scored his league-leading 12th goal of the campaign.

However, like in the 4-1 loss at Sporting in the Champions League on Tuesday, City couldn’t sustain its level in the second half and Brighton fought back, with Joao Pedro equalizing in the 78th and setting up Matt O’Riley for the winner in the 83rd on his Premier League debut.

City’s losing run started at Tottenham in the English League Cup last week, before a 2-1 defeat at Bournemouth in the league — its first league defeat in 11 months.

For Guardiola, it’s simple. City’s squad cannot cope with all its injuries while the fixtures are coming thick and fast.

“We cannot do it every three days, three days, four days, three days with the (injury) situation we have,” he said, adding with an air of desperation, “I would love to have the players (back).”

City’s next game is after the international break, at home to Tottenham in the league.

Salah inspires Liverpool

Liverpool has won nine of its 11 league games in a breathtaking start under new manager Arne Slot, who has got Salah playing in top form.

Salah set up Nunez after a fast breakaway in the 20th minute and scored himself on another counterattack in the 84th for his 10th goal of the season.

“If you asked me before the season started, I would not say we were candidates,” Liverpool midfielder Alexis Mac Allister said about his team’s title chances, “but now it looks like (we are).”

Liverpool right back Trent Alexander-Arnold went off with a suspected hamstring injury in the first half.

Wolves’ first win

Wolverhampton secured its first win in the league and climbed off the bottom of the standings by beating Southampton 2-0 to ease the pressure on manager Gary O’Neil.

Brazil forward Matheus Cunha set up Pablo Sarabia for a second-minute goal and scored himself in the second half to inspire Wolves at Molineux.

Southampton dropped to last place on its return to the top flight.

Wilson’s late goals

Harry Wilson scored another late goal to help Fulham continue its impressive season by winning at 10-man Crystal Palace 2-0.

Wilson’s two stoppage-time goals earned Fulham a dramatic win at Brentford on Monday. This time, he built on Emile Smith Rowe’s opener by netting in the 83rd minute, after Daichi Kamada was red-carded for Palace. Wilson had another goal ruled out for handball in stoppage time.

Brentford bounced back from that painful loss to Fulham with a 3-2 victory over Bournemouth, thanks to Yoane Wissa’s double and a 50th-minute winner from Mikkel Damsgaard.

West Ham drew at home with Everton 0-0 in the other game.

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This story has been corrected to say Fulham won 2-0, not 3-0.

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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer