Man City are finding ways to lose even when they don't

Even when Manchester City don't lose, they lose.

For all the relief at ending their eight-game winless run against Nottingham Forest in midweek, Pep Guardiola was right to be concerned. The City boss had explained that one victory would not be enough to stabilise the issues in the team that an injury crisis had brought, and two more central defenders going off was just what he didn't need.

Goals from Rico Lewis and Erling Haaland ensured the Blues left Selhurst Park with a point, but the result doesn't do much to climb the table and the performance left more evidence of City's vulnerability. Lewis scoring and then being sent off for two yellow cards to mean he will miss next week's Manchester derby sums up how even when the Premier League champions take one step forward at the moment they take at least one back again in a campaign that cannot get any momentum.

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Everyone has come to know what to expect from City, and it is not this: a defence that can be got at, players spraying balls out of play rather than finding a teammate, and a midfield that is easily bypassed. Any hopes that the Forest win would see City turn a corner were displaced inside the opening four minutes when Kyle Walker played Daniel Munoz inside and he smashed the ball past Stefan Ortega.

It was yet another moment for the defence to forget and for Walker himself to forget this season - would scrapping the podcast help at this point or at least changing the title? - yet it came in entirely unsurprising circumstances. If you only have four centre-backs and three of them are injured - two against Forest - you are going to have to use