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Pep Guardiola said that hopefully Erling Haaland will not miss any games after crunching into the post late on in Manchester City's defeat to Aston Villa. Haaland threw himself at a square ball from Omar Marmoush as the clock ticked down in Villa Park and got enough on the ball to squeeze it into the goal. Unfortunately for him Marmoush was offside when he played the ball and to make matters worse the Norwegian had slammed his body into the woodwork. He got up gingerly and was able to finish the game , and Guardiola hopes that he will brush off the knock. The L eague Cup game with Swansea was likely pencilled in as a rest for Haaland anyway, meaning the priority will be making sure he is fine to take on Bournemouth in a week. Haaland failed to score for club or country for the first time in 12 matches, ending his long streak of form. In that absence, no other City player stepped up to mean a Burnley centre-back is still their second top scorer for the season. Guardiola called for more players to help the goalscoring burden last week after the 2-0 win over Everton, although he was happy with the attacking effort against Villa despite the collective blank. "We haven't scored a lot of goals this season and we have to make a step up. Today it is difficult because they defended really well, went to a back five or back six and we had to bring the ball outside with Savinho and then Jeremy [Doku]," he said. "We made the crosses, how many times Phil attacked or Tijjani. We were there, we were close. I had the feeling other games we won we were not so productive. It's just in our high pressing when they got behind us we were not good enough to regain the ball and then you have to defend deep. With the pace of [Morgan] Rogers and [Ollie] Watkins and the physicality of [Amadou] Onana and [Boubacar] Kamara, we know it. "It's a Champions League team - unfortunately for them they are not there - but it's a top team for many years and we competed really well - we are in a good way." --- Here at the Manchester Evening News, we’re dedicated to bringing you the best Manchester City coverage and analysis. Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest City news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe. You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day’s biggest stories. And finally, if you’d rather listen to our expert analysis then make sure to check out our Talking City podcast. Our shows are available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts , and you can also watch along on YouTube .
