Pep Guardiola admitted his Manchester City side missed a major opportunity in the title race as their Tottenham hoodoo continued on Sunday.
The current Premier League champions slumped to a 1-0 defeat at Spurs as Harry Kane netter the winner to become the club’s all-time leading scorer.
With Arsenal suffering a shock loss at Everton on Saturday, the defeat arrived as a huge blow to City’s hopes of overhauling the Gunners’ five point lead at the top of the league.
The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is bogey venue for Guardiola’s side, City losing all five of their visits here without scoring a goal.
On whether the defeat was dropped chance for his side in the title race, Guardiola responded: ‘Yes of course because Arsenal have dropped few, few points so far.
‘So it’s important for us to be close and to leave fifth, which is Tottenham right now, far away to secure qualification for the Champions League.
‘The team started really well in many things - but after a mistake we made two weeks again, we repeated it again.’
On his team’s recent record at Spurs, the City boss added: ‘Sooner or later it is going to change, but it is strange we haven't scored one goal, we have missed penalties in the past.
‘To find an explanation is not easy.
‘We found the positions, made good balls to the channels, but missed the last action up front.
'We are not in the position to think about being champions, just the next game, Aston Villa, we will prepare well and play our game as best as possible.
‘Tottenham has a fantastic team and squad and they punish you. They have a lot of quality up front and don't need much with transitions, set pieces, give a lot of credit to them.’
City dominated for large parts of the game, but struggled to create clear-cut opportunities - and Guardiola added: ‘Most of the time, yes, they followed the plan. But it is not easy when 10 players defend, and sit back a little bit more than in the Etihad two weeks ago.
‘We played good, started well and missed maybe the last pass, to shoot.’
Kevin de Bruyne started another game on the bench, but was introduced in the second half as City searched for an equaliser.
Guardiola said before the game that his decision to omit the Belgian from his striating XI was tactical.
