John Stones despair and Morgan Rogers thrill show up ridiculous Man City transfer plan

It's Christmas time, there's no need to be afraid.

Unless you're Manchester City, who have gone from being the most feared team in England to easy pickings in the space of a few remarkable months. Aston Villa became the latest team to wish they could play City every day with an easy 2-1 win that dumps the Blues down to sixth.

At the rate they are going, Pep Guardiola would probably take that. A team that have gone backwards at an alarming rate in no time at all since their injury crisis first hit in October endured another miserable day at the office.

Guardiola can't win with his lineups while City can't win. It should have been good news for the Blues that John Stones and Manu Akanji were back in the XI, while Kyle Walker and Matheus Nunes were not in it, but there was still plenty of fume about the selection - as there will be when nobody can say they deserve to start on the back of their last performance.

The mood wasn't helped before the team news was out as the Manchester Evening News reported that the club are not planning on signing either Bruno Guimaraes or Martin Zubimendi in the January transfer window. Whether it is because they can't or they don't think they have to, it doesn't help the current squad and doesn't help the club to shift rumours that swirl about the Premier League charges every time they don't go and splash the cash.

As former captain and current midfielder Ilkay Gundogan said after the Feyenoord collapse last month: "It seems we have to go through this season the toughest way possible." Akanji and Stones started while Nathan Ake was back on the bench, yet it still felt like an uphill struggle from the start.

City players are still saying all the right things but they know the only way they can