Another Manchester City defeat, but Guardiola stays calm
Champs fall to third straight 1-0 loss, but Guardiola believes they will score soon
Manchester City have failed to score while losing three consecutive matches in all competitions for the first time under Pep Guardiola, but the Spaniard believes their attack will come good eventually.
The English Premier League champions' 1-0 loss at Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday followed losses by the same scoreline to Leicester City in last week's Community Shield and May's Champions League final against Chelsea.
Guardiola, who fielded attackers Ferran Torres, Raheem Sterling and Riyad Mahrez, insisted he was "delighted" with his attacking options but said they were not clinical enough.
He told the club website: "We arrived many times. We are one against one a lot. But in the end, we could not dribble, shoot and score goals."
Much of the pre-match talk centred on Spurs striker Harry Kane, who was absent from the match-day squad due to his late return to pre-season training as he tries to force a move to City.
City will almost certainly need to break the EPL transfer record for the second time in a month to sign the England captain after splashing £100 million (S$188.1m) on Jack Grealish.
Guardiola is looking for a successor to Sergio Aguero after the club's all-time record goalscorer left for Barcelona at the end of last season.
SAME SQUAD
But City romped to the title last season largely without an injured Aguero and Guardiola believes he can trust his current lot again should a move for Kane not materialise.
"Sergio is gone but we are the same people that won the Premier League last season," said Guardiola.
"We are good enough to create chances and score goals, so we are going to do it."
Grealish was handed his EPL debut, but Guardiola's decision not to rush his England teammates John Stones and Kyle Walker back into action due to their limited training time in pre-season backfired.
Nathan Ake and Benjamin Mendy were exposed on the counter-attack by Tottenham.
After a bright start in which Grealish could have won a penalty and Fernandinho, Joao Cancelo and Mahrez all failed to hit the target, City quickly ran out of ideas.
Son Heung-min has been a thorn in City's side and scored his seventh goal against them in the 55th minute as he cut inside Ake and fired into the bottom corner.
Guardiola introduced Kevin de Bruyne, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko, but they could not do much.
While the opening defeat is a setback, Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville believes it is something that City will overcome.
Said Neville: "They'll probably win the title and if they do get Harry Kane... it's a pretty sure thing I would say because once they get the goals up front, which is what they were missing today, then they'll be fine.
"The defence will strengthen when Kyle Walker and John Stones come back in."
- AFP, REUTERS
BY THE NUMBERS
3 Manchester City have lost three straight matches in all competitions without scoring for the first time since March 2007, when Stuart Pearce was boss.
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now