ROLE REVERSAL!

ANOTHER WIN FOR OLE BUT CITY SLIP UP AGAIN

CITY’S difficult December worsened as Leicester City came from behind to seal a 2-1 victory.

With Liverpool easing past Newcastle, there is now a seven-point gap at the top of the table and Tottenham’s win over Bournemouth moves them into second place.

Two of those three teams have momentum and the other one is Pep Guardiola’s side, which featured Kevin de Bruyne and Sergio Aguero in the starting line-up for the first time in the Premier League this season but are now winless in two league games for the first time since April last year in the manager’s first season in charge.

We are only at the halfway point in the league but City need to get out of their funk and fast if they are to keep pace with the leaders.

Bernardo Silva looked to have given the Blues a priceless goal when he slotted home the opener in the 14th minute, Aguero controlling Aymeric Laporte’s ball into feet and having the vision to pick out his team-mate’s run.

However, rather than fill the team with confidence it only served to gee-up the opposition. As against Leicester and Palace most recently, the defending champions could not keep a lead and Claude Puel’s side didn’t wait long to reply.

Danilo wanted a foul in the build-up but that did not excuse Fabian Delph sleeping on the back post as Marc Albrighton looped a header beyond Ederson from Jamie Vardy’s cross just five minutes after the opener.

Where City have terrorised the division with relentlessly clinical forward play and a solid defence, both have gone missing in the last two games. It was only thanks to Ederson that the teams were level at the break.

Equally though, the continuing defensive issues would not matter if the Blues were their normal selves in front of goal.

City worked a number of promising opportunities yet managed to choose the wrong option almost every time in a sluggish attacking display that saw only Leroy Sane and De Bruyne emerge with any real credit. It’s not that the Blues are struggling to get out of gear, they appear to be playing in neutral. Send them down a slope and all looks normal but those moments where everything works are not making up for the large spells of paralysis. David Silva, back from injury, struggled to make an impact off the bench and rather than taking the game to the hosts it was Leicester who deservedly struck. With 10 minutes to go, Sane could only half-clear a corner and Ricardo Pereira thrashed an unstoppable effort into the far corner.

Cue delirium for those in dark blue and despair for the visitors, with Delph’s late red-card for a zealous challenge on Pereira summing up a disheartening afternoon for Guardiola’s side.

If City are to win the title in May – still very much a possibility – they need to quickly remember how to preserve leads before Liverpool’s becomes unreachable.

We are only at the halfway point in the league but City need to get out of their funk Simon Bajkowsk