Manchester City are not invincible. That much should have been apparent a week ago. After losing their 100 per cent record this season at Celtic and losing at Tottenham Hotspur, it certainly is now.
But for Claudio Bravo’s penalty save from Erik Lamela, City would have done something that neither Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona nor his Bayern Munich side managed: they would have conceded three goals in successive games.
If attention during City’s stunning start was hogged by their attack-minded players, now it must be diverted to the defence.
Tottenham exploited issues Celtic highlighted. City were hoist by their own petard. A team who like to press high do not enjoy it when others apply the same tactic to them.
They are at the vanguard of a new brand of football but they take it further than Tottenham and Liverpool, fellow travellers. Mauricio Pochettino and Jurgen Klopp tend to ensure at least three outfield players remain back when others surge forward.
City’s two centre-backs can be left alone. Theirs is a heavy responsibility.
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The bigger issue, however, lies in the full-back positions. Every summer brings the prediction that City will introduce fresh blood on the sides of the defence.
For the second successive year, they did not.
Guardiola, like Manuel Pellegrini before him, continues to perm from four thirty-somethings. It says something about the Catalan’s priorities – he preferred, for instance, to exile Joe Hart and bring in Bravo than spend that money on full-backs – but defeat at White Hart Lane can be traced to the full-backs, and not merely because Aleksandar Kolarov inadvertently opened the scoring with a miscued swipe.
The Serbian has been one of the beneficiaries of Guardiola’s appointment. The manager appreciates his fine left foot. Yet his defensive deficiencies have not been eradicated by implementing different ideas about possession.
On the right, meanwhile, Pablo Zabaleta ranks as an all-time City great, a valiant trier who brought soul to the side but the sight of Heung-Min Son scampering in behind the slowing Argentine, and not just to deliver the cross for Kolarov’s own goal, is an indication he has lost some pace.
Guardiola’s pre-match statement that City would win the titles with three Fernandinhos is understandable. Instead, they have Fernandinho and Fernando and the latter struggled at Tottenham.
Guardiola’s model at the beginning of his reign has been to field one all-action holding midfielder, in Fernandinho, and twin No 10s.
Against the top teams, there may be a need to invert the triangle in midfield and use two players in deeper berths. Fernandinho and Ilkay Gundogan are the only options of the calibre required to lend control.
It underlined that Guardiola has relied on a relatively small core and has inherited some who either lack the attributes or the quality to suit his style of play.
The limited pair of Fernando and Jesus Navas are cases in point. Both started, and were substituted, at Tottenham. They might not have done had Gundogan been at his fittest, or Nolito available or Kevin De Bruyne fit, but the evidence of the last 12 months is that City can be significantly worse without the brilliant Belgian.
Tottenham began without Harry Kane, Eric Dier and Mousa Dembele, but they are further into Pochettino’s reign, more attuned to his thinking and with more players who fit his blueprint. They passed the test of strength in depth.
City still have arguably the best first 11 in the division, along with the most imaginative, inventive manager.
There is something seductive about Guardiola’s brand of football, about the ambition and the angles and the glut of goals, but Sunday was a reminder that defensive solidity tends to be a prerequisite of title-winning teams, too.
Sides who muster a mere 66 points one season do not tend to be unstoppable the next, even with a large transfer budget and a transformative manager with the capacity to coax swift improvement from his players. City nonetheless merit their billing as favourites, but the aura of invincibility is gone.
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