A crazy 96 hours show that Man City must stay calm as Liverpool mount league title pressure

One normal week of Barclays, that's all we ask.

Saturday evening saw Manchester City succumb to the most demoralising of defeats, a last-gasp capitulation moments after they appeared to have secured a valuable point.

City were below par on Saturday and Tottenham were very good, a superbly organised unit that executed a game plan expertly concocted by Antonio Conte. The London side deserved their victory, even if City had shown fight and persistence in twice hauling themselves level.

City and Pep Guardiola is not normally one to panic, but even he might have been concerned by his side's inability to deal with Spurs' counter-attacks, an Achille's heel of City's that appeared to have been addressed.

But this is the Premier League, and few things really make sense. On Wednesday night Spurs were again playing in Lancashire, this time at Turf Moor, where they conspired to lose 1-0. Ben Mee - a former City youth team captain - scored the only goal of the game, a header aided by some woeful marking.

Spurs dominated proceedings with 66% possession, yet like City four days earlier, they struggled to break down a compact, deep-lying defence. Harry Kane hit the crossbar with a header from a free-kick, but all in all Conte's side mustered just two efforts on target. Burnley, the second-lowest scorers in the division this season, managed four.

Such was the disappointing manner of Spurs' defeat that Conte, who on Saturday wheeled around his technical area in delight when Kane scored a 95th-minute winner, appeared to call his own job into question after his side's fourth defeat in five matches.

"I need to talk to the club," he said. "Tottenham have to make an assessment about the club, about me. We need to find the best solution."

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