Tottenham pile on the misery and hand Manchester City a fifth straight loss

If Pep Guardiola was hoping the international break would spark his team out of its doldrums, the Manchester City manager got a rude awakening on Saturday.

Tottenham Hotspur went into the Etihad and put three past City to extend the losing streak to five games in all competitions.

The curious part, and one that Guardiola is going to cling on to, is the fact Manchester City were the better side in the opening ten minutes. City had a couple of opportunities to take the lead through Erling Haaland but the Norwegian was let down either with a poor touch or finish.

It looked like City may have found its mojo back but Spurs put a stop to that talk in the 13th minute as James Maddison gave Tottenham the lead after a poor giveaway from Gvardiol. The City defender then game Kulusevski too much space to cross, which Maddison runs in to put away. The second came seven minutes later after Maddison was deftly put in on goal by Son Heung-min before culminating with a tidy finish.

Pedro Porro essentially put the nail in the coffin in the 52nd minute as Porro culminated a Spurs counterattack where it looked like Son was contained near the byline before simply passing back to Porro who slotted home. It was a poor goal for City to give up considering it looked like they managed to put out the fire only to be caught out. Not enough of their players tracked back to help out defensively.

City tried to get back in the game, creating a couple of scoring threats, but it simply wasn't Haaland's night who saw his effort midway through the half saved by Vicario. In the third minute of stoppage time, Brennan Johnson scored Spurs' fourth, putting an exclamation point on the proceedings.

The defeat means City have now lost five games across all competitions. In the Premier League alone, it's three straight defeats which is the first time that's happened to Guardiola since he took over. The last time it happened to him, he was managing Bayern Munich.

It's another lopsided loss for City who continue to be exposed on the counter, leaving plenty of space when they're unable to finish their plays. Yes, not having Rodri hurts but the fall of City's midfield in his absence is astonishing. The fact that they're wasteful in front of goal certainly doesn't help things. The game could have gone different had City converted on some of those early chances.

With Liverpool all but assured a win over Southampton on Sunday, City head in to their clash next week eight points behind and potentially 11 points back should they lose to Liverpool. With the way things are going, that possibility is looking more and more like a certainty.