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• Guardiola not concerned despite Manchester City's poor defensive record

  Pep Guardiola is not worried about Manchester City's defending despite the reigning champions failing to keep a clean sheet in their last six Premier League matches.

  City went 1-0 down against Fulham before fighting back to win 3-2 on Saturday. Their opponents also amassed an expected goals (xG) total of 2.4 compared to City's 1.55.

  It follows a trend of unusually sloppy defensive displays from the champions, who have conceded eight goals in their last six league matches. They also had to come from behind against Brentford in September.

  Guardiola, however, is not overly worried.

  "Sometimes I give credit. The first goal – why don't we give credit to them rather than [be critical] defensively? There are actions we can defend better but step by step we will improve," he said, via the Guardian.

  "I would say except [Yoane] Wissa against Brentford, in the other ones we were playing good. It's not nice to come back from 0-1 but we created chances today to go 1-0 and 2-0."

  City allowed Fulham five big chances compared to their one, with the London side taking 11 shots, nine of those from inside the box.

  Comparatively, City had 20 shots with only half of those coming from inside the box. However, two of the visitors’ goals came from outside the area with Jeremy Doku and Mateo Kovacic both firing in from distance. 

  "I'm very happy he scored two goals, he's not a guy to score [usually] those goals," Guardiola said of Kovacic, who is one of the midfielders the City boss expects to fill in for the injured Rodri this season.

  “We started really well with two chances in two minutes and they switched immediately to five at the back. When they do that, we have one man free on the 18-yard box and that is Kovacic.

  "The two goals were because they couldn't defend that. We have to exploit that more against teams that don’t play five at the back – now opponents know that they can’t leave him [Kovacic] alone, otherwise he will score a goal."

• Real Madrid 2-0 Villarreal: Valverde and Vinicius stunners down high-flying visitors

  Real Madrid went level on points with rivals Barcelona at the LaLiga summit following their 2-0 triumph over high-flying Villarreal on Saturday.

  The hosts opened the scoring in stunning fashion when Luka Modric's short corner was dummied by Jude Bellingham for Federico Valverde, with the Uruguayan taking aim from distance and finding the bottom corner with the aid of a deflection. 

  But Villarreal, who had won back-to-back league games heading into the encounter at the Bernabeu, responded almost immediately when Nicolas Pepe's header rattled the crossbar before Thierno Barry nodded over. 

  Los Blancos had further chances to increase their lead, but Antonio Rudiger sent an effort over the bar before Bellingham's long-range effort sailed wide of the post.

  But the victory was sealed 17 minutes from time with another sensational strike, this time Vinicius Junior tried his luck from long-range and curled a superb strike beyond the grasp of Diego Conde after being found by Valverde. 

  The result, however, was overshadowed by a nasty injury in second-half stoppage time to Dani Carvajal, with the Spaniard leaving the pitch on a stretcher and in tears after a collision with Yeremy Pino. 

  Data Debrief: Wonder goals save Los Blancos

  Madrid's two strikes against Villarreal both came from outside the box, as many as they had scored in their previous 39 goals in LaLiga. 

  But Carlo Ancelotti's side were far from their very best at the Bernabeu. They managed to muster an expected goals (xG) total of just 0.47 compared to Villarreal's 0.62, with only two of Los Blancos' 11 shots on target. 

  Valverde, however, impressed for Madrid, creating the joint-most chances alongside Modric (three), while also completing more accurate passes (77) than any other player on the pitch. 

• Kovacic dedicates Man City double to future child

  Two-goal hero Mateo Kovacic dedicated his double to his future child following Manchester City's 3-2 victory over Fulham.

  Kovacic scored either side of half-time to complete the turnaround, as Pep Guardiola's side came from behind to maintain the pressure on Premier League leaders Liverpool, who they trail by a single point.

  The Croatian's deflected strike in the 32nd minute levelled the contest, before he swept City in front from 20 yards within two minutes of the restart.

  That took Kovacic's goal tally for the season to three - already his best return in a single Premier League campaign - and his strikes had added significance on a personal level.

  "It means a lot because my wife is pregnant, so it was great to get some goals for the little one," he said. "It is never easy to play in the Premier League and, today, we showed great character. 

  "We dominated in the beginning and couldn't score, conceded the goal and then came back quickly. In the end, we won it. It was a tough game against an opponent in good form, so for us, it is good to continue winning.

  "It is always important to get the win. It doesn't matter who scores; the most important thing is getting three points. Now, we hope to continue like this."

  Kovacic anchored City's midfield in the absence of Rodri, who suffered a season-ending anterior cruciate ligament injury in the 2-2 draw with Arsenal a fortnight ago.

  "I am playing there in the middle at the moment and, of course, we need to cover for Rodri. We miss him a lot," the 30-year-old added.

  "I think any team would miss him, the player that he is, and we wish him a speedy recovery and hope he comes back in as good a shape as possible. 

  "For now, we have to adapt and, for sure, the manager has a lot of options, so we can rotate."