Man City performance ´better than result´ but Guardiola waiting for players to ´click´

Pep Guardiola saw no need to panic as Manchester City suffered their first defeat of the Premier League season at home to Tottenham on Saturday.

After a 4-0 victory at Wolves had encouraged talk of City fighting for the title again this term, a 2-0 defeat to Spurs brought them crashing back down to earth.

Brennan Johnson scored the opener at the Etihad Stadium on the counter-attack, before an error from James Trafford, playing out from the back, led to Joao Palhinha doubling the visitors’ lead on the stroke of half-time.

There was no route back for City after the restart, creating just 0.39 xG in the second half to lose at home to Spurs for a second straight season.

2 – Tottenham Hotspur are only the second side to win away to a Pep Guardiola managed team in back-to-back league seasons, after Manchester United, who achieved the feat in 2019-20/2020-21. Bogey. pic.twitter.com/8SuACW1b0U

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) August 23, 2025

Guardiola’s side had squandered two big chances, as defined by Opta, before the break, however, and the manager did not feel the scoreline fully told the tale of the match.

“I had the feeling [the performance] was a little bit better than the result,” Guardiola told TNT Sports. “We started well. We conceded a goal that can happen, but we missed the simple things with the ball.”

He added: “The result is not good, but it is a long, long way [in the season]. We will learn from that.”

Guardiola continued on the theme in a post-match press conference in which he also defended his decision to pick goalkeeper Trafford, highlighting his strong performance against Wolves.

According to the City boss, neither the Wolves win nor the Spurs defeat should be given too great a significance at this early stage as a number of new signings, including Trafford, find their feet.

“It’s just the second game,” he said. “The last game, against Wolves, the people said everything is fine, but it’s just the first game, many things are going to happen. It’s the same now.

“I know the way we’re working, what the players are doing, the many good things I have. Of course we have to improve, but I said against Wolves the same in the second half: we have to improve.

“It’s step by step until we click. The connections in many things are new.”