How Man City have even made defeats a positive force in their quest for trophy success

The Manchester City dressing room will have been a curious place to be after the defeat by Tottenham.

Manager Pep Guardiola presents a philosophical face to the media on the rare occasion that his side loses, sparing his real feelings for the intimacy of the training ground.

And when your team has won 14 and drawn one of their previous league games, a ranting, snarling display from the manager is not necessary.

Guardiola trotted out his usual lines - claiming City “performed well”, extolling the virtues of Harry Kane and reminding everyone that he had said the title race was a long way from being over.

And anyone hoping for a juicy line about the manager tearing into his lacklustre side will have been disappointed - he left them to stew in their own annoyance and frustration afterwards, not bothering to even visit the dressing room before his long round of post-match media interviews.

Any panic or anger was very much left to the more fickle element of the City support on social media - there is a new breed of Blue whose sense of entitlement is United-esque in proportion. The time-served elements of the fanbase accept defeat as a given, even if they are far less frequent these days.

Everton, slipping ever closer to the relegation scrap, may have seen that Spurs result and, while encouraged by the message that City are human after all, and not an oil-fuelled killing machine, also be daunted by the fact that the Blues have a healthy tendency to hit back hard after a defeat.

Discounting the Community Shield defeat by Leicester at the start of the season, which was sandwiched between the Champions League final defeat by Chelsea and the opening-day loss to Spurs - with mitigating circumstances - the last time City lost two