MANCHESTER: Manchester City’s troubles from last season were exposed once more in a humbling 2-0 home defeat to Tottenham on Saturday that raised questions over their quest to regain the Premier League title.
Brennan Johnson and Joao Palhinha struck for the Europa League winners just before half-time as Spurs went top of the table, making it a perfect start for Thomas Frank after two league games in charge.
“Extremely proud of the players, exceptionally good performance,” said Frank.
“The mentality is the key thing. We need this mentality to win games like this.”
City’s run of four consecutive titles came to a spectacular end last season as they finished a distant third behind Liverpool and Arsenal.
A 4-0 thrashing of Wolves on the opening weekend of the campaign showed glimpses of a new-look City back to their best.
However, a series of defensive issues remain unresolved, while manager Pep Guardiola must decide on who will be his number one goalkeeper going forward after a day to forget for James Trafford.
“We missed the simple things,” lamented Guardiola.
“Of course we have to improve, but I said the same after Wolves.”
Trafford retained his place in goal despite the return to fitness of Ederson.
The Brazilian is reportedly on the verge of joining Turkish giants Galatasaray, which would free up City to make a move for out-of-favor Paris Saint-Germain ‘keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
City’s failure to get those deals done before the final week of the transfer window came back to haunt them in a familiar tale for Guardiola’s men against Tottenham.
In the last 13 Premier League meetings between the sides, City have won just four despite several changes of management at Spurs in that time.
Frank is the latest man in the Tottenham dug out and has made a highly impressive start.
Spurs were minutes away from beating PSG in the UEFA Super Cup, before losing on penalties, and have taken maximum points from their opening two Premier League games without conceding.
City’s high line was easily exposed in an embarrassing early exit from the Club World Cup to Saudi side Al-Hilal last month and is an issue Guardiola still has to resolve.
Tottenham took the lead on 35 minutes when Mohammed Kudus fed Richarlison and he squared for Johnson to power past Trafford.
An offside flag briefly halted Spurs’ joy until a VAR review showed the slipping Ruben Dias had played Richarlison onside.
City then completely lost their composure for the period before half-time.
Trafford was fortunate to avoid being punished after rushing outside his box to block from Kudus with his arm.
But the 22-year-old then endured a moment which might cost him the chance to be Guardiola’s number one this season.
Trafford’s attempted pass to Nico Gonzalez inside his own box was intercepted by Pape Mate Sarr and even though the goalkeeper recovered to deny Richarlison, Palhinha smashed home the rebound.
Erling Haaland had the chance to reduce City’s arrears in first-half stoppage time, but headed over to sum up a tough afternoon for the Norwegian.
Spurs let a two-goal lead slip late on against PSG in Frank’s first game in charge, but rarely looked in danger of suffering a similar fate.
Haaland wasted City’s other big opportunity to gain a foothold when he overhit a pass to Rayan Cherki with just Guglielmo Vicario to beat.
But City fell to defeat with a whimper and could have been further punished on the counter-attack when Trafford made good saves to deny Dominic Solanke and Wilson Odobert in stoppage time.
