Pep Guardiola has said that his Manchester City team was not good enough during their first day defeat against Tottenham.
City lost the match 1-0 with Son Heung-min scoring the only goal shortly after half-time and beating Nathan Ake before bending an attempt into the far corner.
Guardiola’s side had several good chances early on and had to curb their waste. The loss was City’s second of the season after previously falling to a 1-0 defeat to Leicester City in the Community Shield.
Speaking after the game, Guardiola reflected that City were struggling to deal with Spurs’ counter-threat, while also addressing his team’s poor record recently against Tottenham and Jack Grealish’s league debut.
Guardiola has had it tough in north London before / Michael Regan / Getty Images
– We started really well. “We had problems in some transitions and we were not good enough,” Guardiola told Sky Sports.
“We let in because of loose balls. In general, we made the intention to create chances much more but unfortunately we were not good enough to finish them and we lose the game.
“We drop the ball, they went in behind. Lucas Moura had the quality to run with the ball. It happened because we could not do the simple things better. We drop the ball on the inside and they run on the outside when it was clear that we had to to defend us deeply.
“Apart from that in general, it was really good. Sometimes we drop the other balls but in general it was good.”
“Two days ago was the first day we were together so I know players need time to come back mentally.
“One more week, it’s still the start of the season, so we have to start winning games. There are 37 more games. It’s a long season ahead. We try to correct some things and then we come back with our best.”
It was a frustrating afternoon for City / James Williamson – AMA / Getty Images
“Spurs are a tough rival for us,” he told the club’s website. “I always have a feeling we’re good when we play here, but we can not get the results. You see the statistics every time we play here. Apart from the first season at White Hart Lane, we were really good.
“But statistics are statistics. It’s not easy to control. You drop the ball and they make transitions, they go really well with the ball.
“Moura runs and they make you defend 40 meters behind us. We lost simple balls in parts of our process that we can not do if we want to be stable as a team.”
“He is so dangerous near the box. He has personality – it was an incredible debut. He will be so important to us and I congratulated him on his personality for trying to try to the end. “
