As Christmas comes into view Manchester City will be hoping for a couple of presents in the January transfer window.

Pep Guardiola's side contrived to lose the derby on Sunday from a winning position with just minutes to play as Manchester United staged an improbable comeback handed to them by individual errors and a crisis of City confidence.

The Blues have now won just one of their past 11 games and manager and players seem incapable of finding a solution. And even when they are on the brink of a victory that could be a catalyst to improvement, they find new ways to turn wins into draws or defeats.

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City were in front against Sporting, Brighton, Feyenoord and United in this recent malaise and managed to lose three and draw one of those matches. In all four the opposition scored quickfire doubles - or a treble in Feyenoord's case. Across that quartet of fixtures, City shipped nine goals in 28 minutes in a worrying trend that raises the mentality and confidence questions the players themselves have been asking.

Yet even with the recent woes, City are fifth in the table and only three points behind Arsenal and five adrift of a Chelsea side many are currently purring over. Even Liverpool, nine points above the Blues with a game in hand, showed on Saturday that they are not impenetrable.

Indeed, on Christmas Day last year City sat fifth in the standings, six points adrift off then leaders Arsenal. And while Guardiola's men had a game in hand, went and won the Club World Cup, and were evidently playing better than they are now, their last six games before Christmas yielded just one win. This time around it is currently one victory in seven.

City went on to win the Premier League by two points and were in contention for the Treble up until mid April. Things can change quickly in football, City can attest to that having been unbeaten as recently as late October.

But the squad needs help, January can't come soon enough and City must act in the market. They cannot be expected to improve without improving the squad. Guardiola has accepted more players mean more wins given the gruelling schedule and improvements across the board will be required in the coming transfer windows.

January will simply be a starting point but City will need a new goalkeeper, full backs, a Rodri alternative, a box to box midfielder and a centre forward as a starting point. That's half a team and it doesn't solve the set-up issues or definitively answer the question of what to do with the wingers.

But Guardiola is up for the fight, that much is clear, and all dynasty sides drop off in standards. Some go again. You can guarantee Guardiola believes City can do just that. He's watched club heroes like Vincent Kompany, Sergio Aguero and David Silva depart down the years and found ways to replace and rebuild. The 2024-25 puzzle might be the most difficult one to solve, and Guardiola said in the build up to the derby that he was not a magician, but you'd trust no-one more than him to pull rabbits out of the hat.