Kyle Walker issues captain's rallying cry to demand more from Man City defenders

Manchester City defenders cannot explain why they keep conceding avoidable goals and have been working hard on the training ground to address the underlying struggle to keep clean sheets.

City had plenty of chances against Chelsea on Saturday but experienced an off-day in front of goal and were exposed on the break. The Blues have kept just six clean sheets in the league overall, with only five more in all competitions, which represents the fewest clean sheets at this stage of the season under Pep Guardiola.

Most goals conceded can be put down to individual errors, but a number of recent goals have come from direct breaks. In the last ten games where City have conceded, they have let in the first goal on six occasions - and that is a trend that captain Kyle Walker is demanding must be stopped.

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"It shouldn't take an action to cause a reaction for us," he said. "We’re experienced, we've been here before and we know that every game is a final now. To go one behind for us then to start playing is something that we need to learn from.

"Especially when teams come to the Etihad we need to take the game to them, not them to bring the game to us and we need to really get on the front foot and start quick. For one reason or another, I can't put my finger on it, we obviously don't want to go out there and start like that, but it’s something that happened.

"I don't think there is an easy answer [to solving the problem]. If there was, nobody would concede a goal. But this is football, especially in this league and in the Champions League