Guardiola insists team played well after run of poor results continues

MANCHESTER, England : Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola looked aghast at numerous points of his struggling team's 1-1 Boxing Day draw with Everton on Thursday, burying his face in his hands several times while watching their miserable run of poor results continue.

Bernardo Silva scored a rare early goal and City appeared poised for a victory finally, but Iliman Ndiaye levelled and then Erling Haaland missed a penalty leaving Guardiola's men provisionally sixth in the table.

City, who have just one victory to show for their last 13 matches across all competitions, could drop as low as eighth by day's end.

But Guardiola bristled when asked about his body language.

"No, it's not true. My body language was positive, yes, because the team played really good. I'm not agreeing," Guardiola said.

Confidence has been in short supply for City, and it was much of the same on Thursday as the energy in the squad and among the fans at Etihad Stadium seemed to wane after Haaland's missed penalty in the second half.

"We have to bounce back mentally," Guardiola said. "Life is not easy. Sport is not easy. When that (penalty miss) happened, it's okay, we still had a lot of minutes to play.

"A team like Arsenal and Chelsea could not score," he added, in reference to Everton's two previous games, both 0-0 draws. "We created, we did it, and incredible how (City players) run and fight and do everything. Some games have not been good, but today, the case was it was well played, this is my feeling.

"But football is about winning, football is about you score goals and you don't concede. The last month, month and a half, we are not able to do it."

Guardiola's team has been hit hard by injuries this season, and Kyle Walker missed Thursday's match due to