London, Jul 6 (IANS): Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has set an unwanted personal record after he saw his side get beaten by Southampton in the Premier League on Sunday night.

This was City's third successive away defeat in the league -- 0-2 vs Manchester United, 1-2 vs Chelsea and 0-1 vs Southampton. For the first time in his illustrious career, Guardiola has now lost three away matches on the trot.

City now find themselves 23 points behind champions Liverpool, who have accumulated 89 points in 33 matches. Guardiola's team, meanwhile, have 66 points in as many matches.

In total, City have now suffered nine losses in the season in the league alone and Guardiola failed to give the reason for it. In comparison, Liverpool have lost just two games this term, with their second one coming at the hands of City after becoming league champions.

"In general the games we played are more than good," Guardiola told reporters after the game at St. Mary's as per Daily Mail.

"We play more than good but it is not enough to win the games. We cannot say we are not team who score goals this season.

"We are leading in goals. We create a lot of chances. We are a team who concede less, no team conceded as few chances as us but we lost a lot of games.

"It's difficult even for me to find a reason why but you have to insist and talk about the game, the way they play and try to be more, concede as less as possible and up front score," he added.