.
The right-back prospered as Ange Postecoglu’s men did all evening: by ransacking the champions who, despite Guardiola’s defiance that he is up for arresting the slide, were clueless, as illustrated by Brennan Johnson’s added-time fourth, when, for a countless time, City fell to the quick-break.
You have to go back to 2006 for the last time City suffered five reverses in a row. That dire run ended at a sixth and do not bet against Guardiola’s iteration matching this – Feyenoord are here next on Tuesday – as his famed tactical brain is drawing a blank.
Before kick-off, Rodri’s Ballon d’Or triumph was honoured, the Spaniard presented in front of a huge neon sign that spelled his name in white bulbs. When he was injured against Arsenal here in September, his manager vowed to solve the key No 6’s absence. At the moment Guardiola is failing.
City had been careless in their losing sequence, lacking the usual cold ruthlessness that cuffs aside many foes, and they were again in a dire opening half. Three of the reverses were 2-1, the other 4-1, so of their total of 41 goals in 17 games in all competitions – 22 in 11 league outings before this game – only four had come in the run of defeats.
This showed how the attack had dipped, while being breached eight times told the defence’s story. To try to remedy the latter, in City’s first home match in a month, Guardiola drafted in John Stones and Manuel Akanji from the loss at Brighton last time out, with Bernardo Silva coming into midfield, for Matheus Nunes, who was a substitute alongside the also-dropped Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, Mateo Kovacic was absent through injury.
But inside 13 minutes Spurs raided the reshuffled City pack. Dejan Kulesevski, after mugging the dawdling Josko Gvardiol …
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