Pep Guardiola makes major change to Man City's Christmas training schedule after yet another loss

Manchester City's Christmas training schedule will be different this year amid a wretched run of form for the reigning Premier League champions.

City, winners of the Premier League in the past four seasons, have won just one game in their last 12 and suffered yet another damning defeat on Saturday after being beaten 2-1 away at Aston Villa.

The result, coupled with Bournemouth's 3-0 win at Manchester United, leaves City in seventh place in the Premier League, with plenty of sides below them hot on their tails.

In a huge crisis and looking like a shadow of the team which has dominated English football, City desperately need a victory against Everton at the Etihad Stadium on 26 December.

Because of the fixture, Pep Guardiola's men will be training on Christmas Day at the City Football Academy complex.

City played Everton around the festive period a year ago, coming from behind to win 3-1 at Goodison Park on 27 December. The year before, when City won the treble, there was no Christmas football as the winter World Cup had just finished in Qatar.

In 2021/22, City beat Leicester 6-3 in a thriller on Boxing Day. But City captain Kyle Walker has confirmed they will be training on Christmas because of the early kick-off the following day.

"We've been fortunate in the past couple of seasons that we haven't had to train on Christmas Day," he said on his You'll Never Beat Kyle Walker podcast with BBC Sounds.

"We are doing this season because we've got Everton at 12:30 on Boxing Day. But the last couple of seasons we've had Christmas Day off, which has been very nice..."

Pep Guardiola disagrees with Erling Haaland

With injuries to their backline, City have been an absolute mess defensively but the goals have also dried up and Erling Haaland has struggled up top, having only found the net three times since the start of October.

After the latest disappointment at Villa, Haaland admitted he has not been "good enough" in front of goal recently - in an honest assessment of his performances.

However, Guardiola did not accept Haaland taking responsibility for the current of form and said they'd be worse off without him.

Guardiola said: "I don't agree with him. Without him we'd be even worse, but I like the players feeling that way. It's the only chance that we have to get better. There is two options: do I judge myself? Yes, and the other option is blame within your side and that depends on them.

"I'm not agreeing with Erling because we tried and at the end he needs to deliver the right goals in the right spots and in the right positions, but now we recover and we'll fight for the next one."

After the visit of Everton, City have games against Leicester City and West Ham in the busy festive schedule.