The honeymoon period is now over and reality has dawned. Pep Guardiola started out with a 10-match winning streak. Manchester City are winless in the last four. On Sunday, if they don’t snap the streak against Southampton, it will equal Pep’s worst. The last time this happened was over seven years ago. City have their defensive frailties, but things are not as bad as it looks for the Blues. Make no mistake, leaking four goals at the back is lousy. Eyebrows were raised by Sergio Agüero’s omission. But Manchester City sans the Argentine is still a strong team. I actually liked Guardiola’s approach in starting without his star striker. It wasn’t defensive. Purely tactical — he wanted an extra man in the middle
