Manchester City were labeled “a shell of a team” after Aston Villa’s “routine” win over the champions on Saturday, while Peter Crouch questioned Pep Guardiola’s “strange” decision.

Guardiola’s team were completely outplayed by Villa the 1:2 defeatwith goals from Jhon Duran and Morgan Rogers either side of the break being enough to secure victory before Phil Foden scored a late consolation goal.

The result means City have lost nine of their last 12 games as the extraordinary lull continues and Crouch was shocked by their lackluster performance in Birmingham

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“Their heads are bowed,” Crouch continued TNT Sports. “They are a shell of the team they were.

“Today it felt like there was no urgency, no desperation to win, just that another defeat was imminent.

“Kevin De Bruyne was on the bench. We didn’t see him today. I’m not sure what’s going on with De Bruyne. Why wouldn’t you use him in a game where you’re desperate for a goal? It felt strange.”

He added: “Villa will have much tougher games than the ones they just had there, against much weaker opponents. “That felt pretty routine today.”

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Former City defender Joleon Lescott expressed doubts over whether Guardiola will be able to pull his side out of their current rut and believes their aura has disappeared.

“They were the team you had to play your best against to potentially get a draw. That’s not the case now,” he said.

“In the past when teams have beaten City they have been lucky and City have been unlucky. That’s no longer the case – the teams deserve to win these games. That’s the worrying thing: teams are not having any luck beating City.

“It will be hard for them to get out of this situation and the longer it goes on, the harder it will be. If they had won today, they still wouldn’t be out of the woods.

“When teams smell blood, it gives them confidence. We’ve seen it with other great teams that are at the end of an era.

“You smell blood and suddenly it creates confidence, whatever it may be – keeping a clean sheet, being efficient in front of goal or on set pieces – whatever it may be.”

“The city needs to find some kind of happiness, not just quality. We saw it at the gate today, it’s not a mandatory city goal. Maybe they have to make their creations more out of luck than quality.”