Boxing Day comes once a year but Manchester City cannot escape Groundhog Day this season.

Players dropping out of the squad like flies? Yep. Promising attacking play falling short of putting the ball in the net? Yep. A comfortable performance wrecked in an instant by the opposition's first meaningful attack? Yep, yep, yep.

Everton arrived at the Etihad as the least clinical side in the Premier League, converting just six per cent of their shots. Iliman Ndiaye, a teammate of James McAtee at Sheffield United two years ago in the Championship, instead gave Bernardo Silva a lesson in shooting as City gave up more easy points in the Premier League

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Pep Guardiola had been determined to focus on the positives after their limp defeat to Aston Villa on Saturday, and after giving players time off and the chance to spend Christmas Day morning with their loved ones, it was hoped that the cheer would spread. Except from the moment they turned up at the stadium with eight senior pros missing, sickness for Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan, and five academy players on the bench, it was another instance of City doing damage to themselves before a ball had been kicked.

Even the players had been pleading for the club to sign some more players in January, Guardiola said in a pre-match interview where the manager said again they have to add more players if they can. It may not be easy but as much as the injury situation is unlucky in the extreme the longer the crisis goes out the less certain players can be relied upon going forward.

Silva has been one of the few that have been available throughout City's wretched run of nine defeats in 12 games, and Guardiola came to his defence after the Villa game in the face of criticism. It felt like another nice riposte when he turned in the opening goal of the game to mark a strong City start that had also seen Josko Gvardiol hit the post - but that is not the way scripts are being written for Guardiola and his players at the moment.

Instead, it was Silva's inability to add a second when Phil Foden laid the ball off for him in the area that was to be more significant. Minutes after he had shot awkwardly wide with the outside of his boot, Ndiaye showed perfect technique to silence the stadium in the first half and undo all of City's good work.

To the credit of the champions, they re-emerged after half-time ready to go again. Guardiola was encouraged by the reaction of the crowd after Silva won an early corner, and the noise went up again when Savinho was denied from the resulting corner and Mateo Kovacic shot just wide.

The next action of play brought a City penalty with Savinho brought down, and again City did everything right. Bernardo went over to protect the ball, Savinho was congratulated by his teammates and the ref made sure Seamus Coleman could not put Haaland off too much as he waited to take it.

Then Haaland missed anyway, and was offside as he tried to make up for it by heading in the rebound, and Groundhog Day was back. Guardiola was as animated as he had been all game trying to encourage his players, yet they still wobbled as Everton surged back into the game sensing the opportunity that so many teams over the last two months have; chants for the benched De Bruyne from the South Stand did little to inspire confidence.

Nor did the alarming scene at the end of the game, Guardiola with his head in his hands as four Everton players surged towards just two City defenders in injury time. A point that will have hardly felt good in the first place for City was made worse when Nathan Ake limped off in the final moments to be replaced by Jahmai Simpson-Pusey.

It was a long walk around the pitch for Ake to take his seat on the bench and while he flashed a thumbs up as he sat down, the road for City to success has rarely been longer in the Guardiola era. The fight is still there from the manager, as the encouragement was from him all afternoon urging them on.

But after another tough afternoon where injuries and inefficiencies were the main talking points, this group of players passed up another opportunity to show that they can get out of trouble without needing major help. For all the positivity Guardiola is trying to give off, he can't hide his alarm.