Remember when Manchester City was boring? When gamblers couldn't bear to look at them. It's all so predictable: the matches and the results. Pass the remote control.
How City fans, and Pep Guardiola, long for the days when their winning style of football led to groans. A style of football that depends on control, on slowly strangling the opponent by holding and moving the ball.
But after 15 straight games for the third title defense, only the Premier League games involving Aston Villa and Brighton have produced more goals than City's 53. It's been chaos this season – and not always of the organized kind.
The six-point difference with leaders Arsenal will not bother Guardiola that much. They have come from behind before and there is always the belief that they will build a winning run that will take the title. There's no reason why that can't happen again, but Guardiola will have to plan the attack in a different way.
This season the team has consisted of direct wingers like Jeremy Doku and limitless midfield runners like Julian Alvarez, which has left the defense exposed at times.
Manchester's style this season features direct wingers such as new signing Jeremy Doku
Striker Erling Haaland has been forced deeper into midfield with varying degrees of success
Pep Guardiola finds life after Ilkay Gundogan (photo) difficult to adapt to this season
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The departure of Ilkay Gundogan, a freebie to Barcelona, is the biggest change City have to adapt to. He was captain, scorer of historic goals, but also the one man who really got Guardiola and the skill of pausa: how to dictate matches. He rarely lost the ball and knew exactly when to speed up or slow down proceedings.
The only player available during the Villa defeat who could do the job, Bernardo Silva, was moved to the right wing due to absences elsewhere. It left City with two centre-halves (Manuel Akanji and John Stones), a teenage full-back (Rico Lewis) and a striker (Alvarez) in midfield.
The subsequent lack of control caused Erling Haaland to drop deeper to get to the ball. As a result, he had just two touches in the Villa box (compared to nine in the same match last season, when he scored). And the striker's average position on Wednesday night was in his own half, compared to three-quarters of the pitch last season.
In that match, Gundogan pulled the strings – alongside Rodri and Kevin De Bruyne, both of whom were absent at Villa Park on Wednesday – and passed the ball to Haaland.
Gundogan is a genius in midfield and there was great frustration at City that they could not convince him to stay, even though the German's injury record was worrying. If you add the departure of Riyad Mahrez, another adept at taking a step back to choose his moments, and look at the profile of the player arriving, City are in a transition phase.
For example, Alvarez always wants to move forward quickly, understandable since he is a natural attacker. Document the same. Some control has been lost. Against Villa on Wednesday, City had 54 percent of the ball. Last season at Villa Park they had 72 percent. “There were a lot of games where if we had won the ball, we would have had a good attack, and if they had won the ball, they would have had a good attack,” Akanji said. 'They won 90 percent of these matches. The other games weren't like that.
Against Villa on Wednesday, Erling Haaland's average position was in his own half as he looked for the ball due to City's relative lack of possession.
Last season at Villa he played much higher, as Gündogan, De Bruyne and Rodri controlled the game
'Against Tottenham we were in control, against Liverpool we should have won. We shouldn't have done that against Villa.'
With those words, Akanji – whose own take on Stones' role doesn't really work – has hit the nail on the head. Villa weren't the same, Villa were a 1-0 attack, the kind of damage City usually do to others.
Guardiola took the blame. “It is my duty, my job to find a way to restore the situation,” he said. 'We have to change the dynamic. We have to think about what to do with the players we have.”
After a lengthy, compelling and passionate defense from his players on Tuesday – only this man at this club has to defend his side after three draws against decent opposition – Guardiola got to the heart of the matter. He said the core of this team had changed, essentially the reliable pausa traders had been swapped for runners. And he has to find a way to make that sing.
The summer signings, Mateo Kovacic and Matheus Nunes, could both still work. There's no way to make a definitive assessment on either given their lack of playing time.
Kalvin Phillips is clearly not going to make it at City. He remained an unused substitute against Villa. But Kovacic and Nunes are so far removed from Gundogan's style of play that it will take some time for them to settle into the team.
Neither has Guardiola's confidence yet and both have suffered injuries. They would get more time if City took their chances; Haaland was guilty of missing good chances against Tottenham and Villa.
The summer signing of Mateo Kovacic could provide some balance, but no confidence is needed yet
Kevin De Bruyne will be sorely missed this season, but he alone cannot solve the problem when he returns from injury
But blaming Haaland is rude: he is the Premier League's top scorer and has scored five goals in his last six games.
And while he tops the Premier League list for 'big chances missed', that's because he gets a lot of 'big chances'. Feed him and he will score plenty.
De Bruyne is missed there. He assisted Haaland regularly and will do so again when he returns. But he alone cannot fully put things right and restore the break Guardiola craves.
The manager may have to come up with another tactical masterclass if City are to make history with a fourth title on the line.