Pep Guardiola: 'Fragile' Man City must face challenge head on

Pep Guardiola admitted Manchester City are in a "fragile" state after they were mauled 4-0 by Tottenham Hotspur in Saturday's late game, but his side must stand up to the challenge of turning things around and "cannot run away".

The resounding defeat ended City's 52-game unbeaten home record and condemned Guardiola's charges to a fifth consecutive defeat in all competitions - by far the worst run of the Spaniard's managerial career.

James Maddison's well-taken brace put Spurs two goals ahead at half-time before Pedro Porro added a third following a superb counter attack. Brennan Johnson added gloss to the scoreline in stoppage time, handing Spurs - who were without first choice centre-back duo Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven - one of the best wins of Ange Postecoglou's reign.

A pensive Guardiola admitted after the game that City's vulnerabilities had been exposed by Spurs, adding that many things must change if the champions are to break the cycle and get back on track.

"We were quite decent; we created a lot. I would say we are quite fragile right now, that is obvious from the fact that we struggle today to score goals and when they arrive, they scored goals," Guardiola said.

"We are playing a little bit in our thoughts, but it’s normal. Football is a sense of mood and when you win a lot it gives you the self-awareness that you can do it.

"And when you lose three in a row in the Premier League, that situation it’s always a little bit there.

"There are many things that are going to happen that we need to do to break the results as much as possible to get more positive and confident."

Guardiola conceded that City's incredible consistency over the past eight years means they are treading new ground, but all of their focus and energy must be on turning things around in their next game against Feyenoord in the Champions League.

"At the same time, being here for eight years, I knew that sooner or later we would drop," Guardiola remarked. "Of course we never expect to lose three Premier League games in a row. In that time we always expected a drop, but we were incredibly consistent.

"However, we cannot deny the reality that sometimes in  football and sometimes in life it’s here. We are not used to losing so many games in a row. That’s happened. We have to do everything to change, especially the next one.

"The exception is the reality we lived for eight years is not determined. Sometimes it happens and sometimes you drop a little bit, it’s happened right now."

He concluded: "But at the end of the day, I would say that what we have done for many years here, it’s my way, the way I like to play, but now we have a period, you cannot run away.

"You have to face it and break the next game."

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