Tottenham – City (2-0) – Guardiola: “Mourinho’s teams are like that…”

Josep Guardiola was trapped by José Mourinho. And in beauty. Tottenham signed a demonstration of realism to fold Manchester City (2-0) and settle provisionally on the throne of the Premier League. Two shots on target, two goals. One for Heung-Min Son early in the game and another for Giovani Lo Celso to close the deal in the middle of the second half. “It was the perfect scenario for them“, could only note the Catalan technician at the microphone of Sky Sports at the end of the meeting. And the worst for Manchester City.

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Guardiola knows what he’s talking about. In 24 confrontations against José Mourinho, the Spaniard had time to learn the recipe from the Portuguese. “We defended badly on the first goal, he lamented. Then they defended so low, they defended at six and it wasn’t easy. We knew before the game that we couldn’t give them the first goal. We had more chances than them but we lost. Mourinho’s teams are like that… You make a mistake and they punish you on the counterattack.“

City took a lesson in efficiency. And the contrast to City’s lack of realism is stark. Guardiola’s side sent no less than 41 shots on Tottenham’s goal in their last two encounters with Spurs. Without registering the slightest goal. City broke their teeth on a London team who was just waiting for that to crucify them against. “We took a goal after five minutes, then we knew that Kane was going to go back and that Bergwijn and Son were going to take the depth, Guardiola explained. And we knew it would be physically difficult when they defend like that.“

For City, the evil runs deeper than this simple defeat in a title race. The Mancunian team is no longer the flamboyant machine that has pierced the Kingdom’s defenses with full blows in recent seasons. A spring broke and it shows in the numbers. The Citizens have scored just five goals in their last six league appearances. In total, they only found the nets ten times after eight days. You have to go back to the 2006-07 season to see them posting such a low total at this point in the season.

Manchester City’s offensive difficulties are not without consequence. They largely explain the delay taken by the Mancuniens in the race for the title. They are in a very disappointing 10th place and are already relegated to eight points behind Tottenham, who however played one more game. It prevents. City have only twelve points after eight days. It was their worst start to the championship since the 2008-09 financial year. At the time, they had ten points after eight days.

The most disturbing thing is that this bad patch comes as the Mancunian club has just sealed its future with Josep Guardiola by extending his contract until 2023. While City gave up the title in Liverpool and stumbled over OL in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Especially “Pep” always struggles to find solutions to relaunch his team. “We tried to win, we are very far from where we would like to be, so we have to start winning again, he acknowledged. It’s a really weird season, for a lot of reasons. “Guardiola is still looking for the cure. And for City, it would be better if he found it soon.