Early goals from Timo Werner and Pape Sarr proved too much for Manchester City, who suffered a 2-1 defeat at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Wednesday night.
The defeat sees City fail to capture the Carabao Cup for the fourth season in a row, after previously winning it four times on the bounce during the start of Pep Guardiola’s tenure at the club.
Timo Werner’s goal came off a counter-attack just five minutes into the match, and Pape Sarr doubled Ange Postecoglou’s side’s lead 20 minutes later with an excellent individual goal from a set piece.
The early deficit proved to be too much for Pep Guardiola’s players to handle, although Matheus Nunes provided the lone goal for Manchester City late in the first-half, as the Sky Blues attempted to mount a comeback.
City had a few chances to grab the equaliser throughout the second half, but the best chance came from Academy graduate Nico O’Reilly in the closing moments of the contest, but his chance was denied by an excellent block from Yves Bissouma on the goal-line.
Manchester City will now travel back down to the south of England this weekend as they make the trip to the Vitality Stadium on Saturday afternoon to face Bournemouth in the return to Premier League action.
Before then, here are the Five Things We Learned from Manchester City’s cup defeat to Spurs!
The small squad might be failing
It’s no secret amongst Manchester City fans that Pep Guardiola prefers to have a smaller squad. The Catalan believes the more players in a dressing room, the more likely you are to have players upset due to a lack of minutes.
It’s a principle that has, for the most part, been incredibly successful. However, it allows the potential for an injury crisis to be devastating.
City went into the ongoing season without without a back-up for both Rodri and Erling Haaland. Just a few weeks after the transfer deadline, Rodri’s ACL took a blow, and Haaland looks thoroughly exhausted by the end of October.
It’s not just these two players though. City are also without Kevin De Bruyne, Oscar Bobb, Jack Grealish, Jeremy Doku, Savinho, and Kyle Walker, while Manuel Akanji was forced out moments before Wednesday’s match, and Josko Gvardiol was in need of treatment at full-time.
No amount of depth can fix all of those injuries, but trying to find a solution with such a small squad could prove to be too difficult of a task for Pep Guardiola.
Ilkay Gundogan still hasn’t woken up
When Ilkay Gundogan was signed (again), it seemed like a perfect solution to Manchester City’s lack of depth in midfield.
However, the honeymoon period is over and after two months there is little to show for it. The German midfielder was irreplaceable just two seasons ago, but he currently looks like a shell of himself.
There’s still piety of time left for the 34-year-old to return to form, but it’s taking a lot longer than any of us expected.
Matheus Nunes’ run continues
It’s hard to remember a bigger redemption story during the Pep Guardiola era than what Matheus Nunes is going through right now.
The Portuguese midfielder has continued to take advantage of every opportunity being given to him at the moment and has gone from backup to borderline starter at the moment.
With injuries ravishing the squad, Matheus Nunes will need to stay in this form for the next few weeks, at the very least.
The Carabao Cup is no longer Manchester City’s trophy
The early ages of the Pep Guardiola era saw Manchester City win the Carabao Cup with such ease and regularity that it was comical. After six wins in eight years, City will now have gone four years without a League Cup victory.
While it’s a disappointment for Manchester City to regularly be missing out on a trophy, there is a benefit in having less games played on the legs of a smaller squad.
The season is only just now about to start
While there is always doom and gloom after a Manchester City defeat, it’s important to highlight all of the good as well.
Despite the injuries and shortened squad, City are currently top of the table in the Premier League. After a relatively calm opening to the season that saw City play only a few difficult fixtures, November is where things start to ratchet up.
City will face Brighton, Spurs and Liverpool over the next month, and have eight fixtures ahead of them in December. Historically this is where City’s season is won, let’s see if Pep Guardiola and co. can do it again.