City slump to fifth straight defeat after Spurs mauling

Five in a row has taken on a different meaning for Manchester City and Pep Guardiola.

- RICHARD JOLLY

It was supposed to signify their pursuit of an unprecedented fifth consecutive English title. Instead, the immediate significance comes from another historic first. Guardiola has lost five consecutive matches, his worst ever run bookended by reverses against Tottenham Hotspur.

If the first scarcely left City distraught, with Guardiola unworried by exiting the Carabao Cup, the latest was more emphatic, more dramatic, more chastening, more stunning. Guardiola’s joint heaviest defeat became an embarrassment. He risks being expelled from the title race. City could find themselves eight points behind Liverpool today, perhaps returning from Anfield next week 11 adrift. That, Guardiola conceded, would be too big a gap to bridge.

“After eight years here I knew sooner or later we would drop,” he said. But perhaps not this far, this fast. Empires can collapse suddenly and dramatically but City’s was supposed to have been reinforced. This began as an evening of celebration; it became one of humiliation and capitulation. The new-contract bounce, of Guardiola committing his future to the club until 2027, lasted for about 12 minutes of football. The gaudy on-pitch presentation of the Ballon d’Or to Rodri was followed by an illustration of how much City miss their injured talisman. A third straight league defeat showed a now familiar fragility. City were caught on the break too easily and too often. A team without a proper defensive midfielder lost to one with a potent attacking midfielder.