Pep Guardiola did not panic when Manchester City suffered their first defeat of the Premier League season on Tottenham on Saturday.
After a 4-0 victory at Wolves had again talked about city fights for the title, a 2-0 defeat against Spurs brought them back to Earth.
Brennan Johnson scored the opener in the Etihad Stadium on the counterattack, before a mistake by James Trafford, which took place from the back, led to Joao Palhinha who doubled the visitors during the break.
There was no route back to City after the restart, so that only 0.39 xg was created in the second half to lose at home to Spurs for a second consecutive season.
2-Tottenham Hotspur is only the second side that wins for a Pep Guardiola Managed-Team in Back-to-back competition seasons, after Manchester United, who achieved the performance in 2019-20-20-2010/2020-21. Bogey. pic.twitter.com/8suacw1b0u
– Optajoe (@Optajoe) August 23, 2025
The side of Guardiola, however, had wasted two big chances, as defined by Opta, before the break, and the manager did not feel the score completely told the story of the game.
'I had the feeling [the performance] Was a little better than the result, “Guardiola told TNT Sports.” We started well. We have admitted 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 the theme in a press conference after the match in which he also defended his decision to choose the Donse Trafford, and emphasized his strong performance against Wolves.
According to the City Boss, neither the Wolves nor the Spurs -the defeat in this early stage should be given too big meaning, since a number of new signing sessions, including Trafford, find their feet.
“It's just the second game,” he said. “The last game, against Wolves, the people said that everything is fine, but it's just the first game, many things will happen. It's the same now.
“I know how we work, what the players do, the many good things I have. Of course we have to improve, but I told 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.”