Pep Guardiola must fix the one defensive problem that could cause Man City further set-backs

To anyone who hadn't watched the game, Pep Guardiola might have appeared surprisingly upbeat following Manchester City's 1-1 draw with strugglers Aston Villa.

City went into Saturday's contest at Villa Park off the back of consecutive Premier League wins, in each of which summer signing Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick. The 22-year-old scored again on Saturday, but City spurned their chances and ultimately paid the price.

As is often the case, Pep was keen to highlight the positives of his side's performance, but he also identified a defensive issue that he must address this season. City have enjoyed a better start to the season than they did in each of the last two seasons, but defensively they have failed to convince in their opening six Premier League matches.

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While the Blues have kept three clean sheets so far, defensive errors and misjudgments have contributed to them leaking three goals against Newcastle, two against Crystal Palace and one against Aston Villa.

After thumping Nottingham Forest 6-0 midweek, City endured a frustrating afternoon at Villa Park on Saturday. For much of the game they were defensively sound and dangerous in attack, but one poor decision from John Stones – who was otherwise excellent – allowed Villa to score after City had spurned a number of chances to kill off the game.

In recent years City's Achilles' heel has been defending against counter-attacks, but since a disappointing 2019/20 campaign Guardiola has taken actions to minimise that particular weakness. Sometimes – as Newcastle showed – City can be got at on the counter, but only really when the opponent has incredibly fast