Man City lineup vs Tottenham can prove forgotten Pep Guardiola gripe

Manchester City have been so bad at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium that all Pep Guardiola can do is see the funny side.

A 1-0 defeat there in the Champions League quarter-final first leg ultimately set them up for exiting the competition in 2019, and three dismal league defeats have followed in which they haven't been able to score a single goal.

Their latest loss in North London - on the opening day of the 2021/22 campaign - came with some mitigation though. City had so many players at Euro 2020 in the summer that Guardiola cut such a forlorn figure during a mini pre-season that featured friendlies against Championship opposition with a threadbare squad that at one point he suggested there was no point in him being there.

Disrupted preparations meant that the Blues began the defence of their Premier League title severely undercooked, with some stars rushed back into the XI after less than a week of training, many more on the bench and others not even making the squad.

It was seen as a gamble by Guardiola to have given the players an extra week of rest, to risk short-term pain for long-term gain, and it was (and one that appears to have paid off). But there was little made or remembered of the fact that they had to start their season without many of their preferred starters.

This was a point raised by the manager when Covid was at its most disruptive this season in the winter, and managers were questioning the integrity of the league and Thomas Tuchel had suggested that City's lead at the top of the table was down to luck with Covid.

"We had injuries, we had Covid," he said in January. "Maybe we don’t say which players - out of respect [to those players] the club don’t do it - but we had a lot of players and backroom