Five Things Learned: Manchester City 0-4 Tottenham (Premier League) | OneFootball

Manchester City’s defeat against Tottenham was not quite “unthinkable” in the Premier League, but a 0-4 scoreline was humiliating when coupled with a ruthless breach of the champions’ fortress.

City returned to Premier League action following the international break hoping to end their losing streak. Instead, they saw their 52-match home unbeaten run come to a humbling end via a 0-4 defeat against Tottenham.

Pep Guardiola’s side were outclassed by the visitors after the first 10 minutes, with James Maddison netting a quick brace early in the first-half, and both goals originating with Dejan Kulusevski winning his battle against Josko Gvardiol.

On the other hand, Maddison capitalised on mistakes from John Stones and Kyle Walker, sneaking away from the Manchester City defenders and successfully firing past Ederson to give his side a two-goal advantage.

Guardiola would have hoped to see his team fight back in the second half, but not much changed. Another masterful counter-attack saw Kulusevski escape with the ball, beating three players to help create a third, this time for Pedro Porro against his former club.

Kevin De Bruyne’s introduction in the second half saw the champions play with more zest, but it was too late. Countless missed chances would come back to haunt the hosts again after a counter-attack saw Timo Werner pierce past the defence to set up Brennan Johnson.

This was the second time this season Postecoglou has defeated Guardiola after his side eliminated City from the Carabao Cup at the fourth round stage, and the loss also marked the first time the Catalan coach had suffered a fifth consecutive defeat in his managerial career.

Manchester City now sit eight points behind league leaders Liverpool following their 2-3 win at Southampton on Sunday afternoon, and are at massive risk of seeing that gap widen when they lock horns next weekend at Anfield.

Although City have always found Spurs to be rough opponents, a 0-4 defeat tells of the problems the current team are facing, and that they run deeper than simply ongoing injury woes and seasonal jittery runs.

Perhaps these concerns come with a heated debate over what went wrong on Saturday evening, but more importantly, that they require addressing to determine what can be done to make it right.

Here are the Five Things We Learned from Manchester City’s crushing defeat at home on Saturday evening, ahead of what is now a mammoth week for the club!

Pep’s big miss with the Ilkay Gundogan/Rico Lewis pairing

There is no denying that much is being asked of Rico Lewis after being positioned in the defensive midfield. The teenager had yet another game he would like to forget as he struggled to cope with the demands of his offensive and defensive responsibilities.

But to make things worse, his parking with Ilkay Gundogan seemed far more inefficient than one would have imagined.

Gundogan has looked far from his best since returning to Pep Guardiola’s side, and was uncharacteristically poor in his passes up front and barely moved to help the defence against Tottenham.

His performance, coupled with that of a highly nervous Lewis, left glaring holes in the hosts’ midfield for the Spurs forward line to exploit. It is impossible to replace Rodri’s stalwart presence, but if this Gundogan-Lewis pairing is Pep Guardiola’s solution, can he afford to be patient?

Josko Gvardiol was outmatched by Dejan Kulusevski

City have greatly benefitted from Josko Gvardiol’s crucial role in attacks, with the Croatian posing a legitimate threat with his forward runs.

However, his defensive prowess was scrutinised when Dejan Kulusevski completely outclassed him when their sides locked horns. Despite his best attempts, Gvardiol found his man unplayable, whereas the Spurs winger led all attacks from his team.

Kulusevski caught Gvardiol off his mark and punished him immediately by setting up the first goal. He pounced on the City defender’s misplaced pass and quickly created a second goal to fetch an early lead for his team.

Gvardiol could not recover and had to give up on his offensive strides to gain a fighting chance against a relentless Kulusevski. Despite mistakes, the City left-back is expected to remain among the line-ups, and hopefully will be better prepared for similar tests in the season.

Kyle Walker adds to Manchester City’s trouble

Walker’s form has suffered significantly since his return from injury, and his first match after the international break was another outing that raised serious questions about his position in the starting line-up.

The English right-back was outplayed throughout the match on Saturday evening, and left his man unattended for the second and the third goals in particular, whilst appearing to play chicken with Timo Werner for the fourth.

It is worth noting that the City captain worked hard to keep Heung Ming-Son from being a more significant threat to his side of the pitch. However, that only forced the Spurs forward to get creative with his passes inside the box, for which Walker had no answer.

He massively struggled against his former team, with one of the worst performances of the evening in the Manchester City shirt.

Phil Foden and the latest qualms with his final play

It has been a long wait leading up to see Phil Foden lead the charge from midfield. The City star is understandably far from his goal-scoring form, but his decision-making in the final third was particularly concerning in the match against Tottenham.

He combined well with Josko Gvardiol to put pressure on the Spurs defence and, at times, executed splendid solo runs inside the box.

However, his crosses to Erling Haaland were either mistimed, or he found himself shooting wide. The unfortunate culmination of nearly all of Foden’s moves toyed with the Manchester City faithful all evening, especially when the brightly orchestrated runs would trouble the opponents.

It would be an unfair ask of him to display similar prowess inside the box as last season, but he didn’t seem to be getting close to the same either.

Erling Haaland battling a double-edged sword

Haaland was on the receiving end of several chances created by City but failed to convert. He wasn’t awful in front of the goal, but a goalless match for the Norwegian seems concerning concerning his standards.

Adding to his troubles, the Manchester City strikers have no support at present, and not in terms of chances created, but considering how no team member attempts to shoot.

Thus, the many creative runs – despite the quality – are still predictable when they will inevitably end with the ball being crossed to Erling Haaland inside the box. He is already marked and successfully pulling the defenders, which should push more City players to exploit the space and test the goalkeeper.

Instead, Josko Gvardiol was arguably the only other player in a Sky Blue shirt to take shots and help break up the Spurs’ defensive line-up. More often than not, City’s attack grew dormant as soon as Haaland got behind the ball, and the latter’s concerning form did not do him any favours.