Sean Dyche is one step away from using the V-word here. The day he starts talking about vibes is the day we know it’s over.

Pep Guardiola goes to Amazon

(How do you find your rhythm again?) I don’t know. Basically winning games. We can’t think beyond the next game; we will try.

I love the club, the hierarchy and the people, my life in Manchester. We have many problems, for many reasons, and the goal is to solve the problem.

When we’ve won everything in the past, we had almost a full team. We are now missing eight important players. When they come back they have to go straight into the team and with one game every three days they suffer another injury. We are in a cycle that we cannot get out of.

Kyle is not feeling well, Kevin and Gundogan (who are on the bench) have had flu in the last few days, Jack (Grealish) is injured. Football is unpredictable. When you think, “Oh, it’s going to be difficult,” maybe our form changes.

(On the transfer window) If we can, we definitely need to add players. However, I don’t know if it will happen because the winter transfer window is not easy.

Statistics Department City have won and drawn 14 of their last 15 games against Everton.

Barney Ronay on the city’s astonishing collapse

There is no obvious explanation for any of this. A team made entirely of aura and carrying its presence like a lance became an anti-presence, stuffed shirts, straw men.

As always, the explanations tend to divide into the macro and micro views of the story. Details always decide a game. But we remain addicted to our comprehensive narratives. So the more sober analysis says: Take the Ballon d’Or winner from any team, add one or two key defensive injuries, and of course there will be an exit.

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preamble