Pep Guardiola says missed chances, not referee, cost City three points against Tottenham

It's safe to say Manchester City deserved a blowout victory against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday. The amount of chances created in the first half, a clear penalty that would have given the team probably a 3-1 lead against ten men late in the second half, and a generally dominant performance for the entire 90 minutes clearly shows that the Sky Blues should have taken three giant points at the Etihad.

Instead, Spurs scored two goals with two shots on target and escaped with a draw. Once again, another fantastic offensive performance that lacked multiple goals and costly mistakes at the back.

Pep Guardiola has seen this before.

"We performed outstandingly - it was a deja vu game.

"It was the same as Chelsea - we created a lot but we missed a lot of chances. It happened against Everton at home, it happened against Chelsea. The players played with heart but we didn’t win."

Although it is true that City missed some big chances, the clear penalty from Kyle Walker on Raheem Sterling that wasn't called and immediately led to the equalizer from Son Heung-Min would have basically guaranteed a victory for City, and that mistake from referee Andre Marriner was a deciding factor in the match.

Still, Pep doesn't want to blame the officiating, because he feels like those mistakes have happened before in games that City should have won, but once again didn't because of... yes, missed opportunities.

"It doesn’t matter, we had the same argument against Chelsea but we lost because we missed a lot of chances. When you score a goal the ref doesn’t matter, the rules here are the rules."

Despite the disappointing result, and the bad refereeing, Guardiola is happy with his team's performance and the response they provided after the Everton defeat:

"Except one or two games we've produced good performances this season. Tottenham - they are a brilliant team. We were able to make a huge performance and that’s why I am so so happy.... maybe in the future, for this Club, these games will make us stronger."

Many, many Citizens played very well against Spurs, but two of them caught the eye of people watching: Leroy Sané returned from injury and played a spectacular match, and new signing Gabriel Jesus came on with 10 minutes to go and made a fantastic impact, even scoring the game-winner that was (correctly) ruled for offside.

Pep commented on the two boys, and he's proud of them too:

"Jesus has talent but alone cannot do that. We have to score goals and we are not able to do that; when this happens it’s impossible to win.

"I’m so happy for the performance from Leroy. It’s not easy to come here and play, he was injured, I encourage him to keep going at that level. He has special qualities for us. I’m so happy for him."

Source: ManCity.com