Tottenham comeback costs Guardiola's Man City more points as title chances slip further for both

Pep Guardiola needed this.

The Manchester City manager was, for years, considered the best in the world. But just as soon as his side stumbled in his first Premier League season, a legion of critics raced to be the first to publish their takes on how overrated they thought he was, saying, “See? He was only good because he managed Barcelona and Bayern Munich.”

There’s a kernel of truth to this. Management is a simpler line of work when you have one of the all-time greatest club teams at your disposal, one at the absolute peak of a decade-long dynasty. And Bayern has systematically used its financial might to poach its domestic competitors’ best players, making it ever harder for anybody to beat the Bavarian champions.

But this also overlooks Guardiola’s contribution in implementing systems that enshrined these teams’ superiority. And the regression after his departure in both teams, however minor perhaps, underscores the added value he always had.

City, however, has been a job of a difficulty he had not yet faced.

For one, it isn’t the biggest club in its country, or even part of a duopoly. It isn’t even the biggest club in its own city. There are more than two clubs structurally in the title race in England. These days, it’s more like six. And City was a team with significant deficiencies. So success has neither been assured or immediate.

After spending the first 10 matchdays in first place, the Citizens have slid to fifth place on the back of four losses in the last eight games. So they badly needed to win against second-place Tottenham Hotspur at home on Saturday to rejoin the pack chasing an imperious Chelsea – especially with Manchester United tying Stoke and Liverpool incomprehensibly losing to Swansea City earlier in the day. If Guardiola’s first season wasn’t going to be a wash, he needed the points. We’re past the halfway point of the season now. The jostling for the title chase is happening now, with the decisive months fast arriving.

Guardiola didn’t get the points. He got a point, after his Man City dominated the match – outshooting Spurs 17-6 and 7-2 with shots on target – but gave up a two-goal lead for a 2-2 tie, courtesy of some uncharacteristically shoddy goalkeeping by Tottenham’s Hugo Lloris.

City had Spurs totally pinned back in the first half. To go scoreless into halftime, Toby Alderweireld had to apply a superb tackle to diffuse a close-range Pablo Zabaleta shot. Lloris then saved well with a long dive on a David Silva shot. Zabaleta got off another pull from the subsequent corner that spun just wide the other post.

Guardiola’s men got ever closer. Before the break, Leroy Sane had a pair of dangerous headers and Sergio Aguero had a look that was closed down well by Alderweireld.

Just after halftime, City finally broke through. In the 49th minute, Kevin de Bruyne’s ball over the top caught Lloris out at the edge of his box. He hesitated and dove to head the ball. He didn’t get enough on it and the ball glanced off Sane’s arm and bounced into his path for an open goal.

Just five minutes later, City won the ball in midfield and sent Raheem Sterling on his way. His low cross was too close to Lloris, but the Frenchman spilled the routine ball and De Bruyne got a touch on it for an easy tap-in.

Spurs would work their way back into the game, though. Just before the hour, Kyle Walker served up an excellent cross from a loose ball. Defender Aleksandar Kolarov got a few hairs on it but Dele Alli connected with all of his forehead to nod the ball home.

The pivotal moment came in the 77th minute. Walker shoved Sterling just as he was finishing on a breakaway but was somehow spared a penalty and perhaps a red card on a clear denial of a goal-scoring opportunity. At the opposite end, Son Heung-min finished clinically on an attack set up by Christian Eriksen and backheeled to him by Harry Kane. That made it 2-2.

City’s teenaged Brazilian mega-signing Gabriel Jesus entered the fray late on for his debut and made an immediate impact. He sent a dangerous low cross almost straight away that didn’t find a foot to stick it home. He then did well to get to a header that looped menacingly onto the roof of goal. And in the 83rd minute, it seemed like he’d gotten a winner. But he’d strayed a foot offside on the low De Bruyne cross before sliding it in at the far post.

More wasted points for City. A third failure to win in four matches, which have yielded just four points, and the Sky Blues remain in an undesirable fifth place, outside of the Champions League spots. Spurs won’t mind the outcome, all things considered, given how badly they were outplayed in the first half and the hole they had to dig out of in the second.

“We make an outstanding performance,” Guardiola said after the game, lamenting the back luck his team has suffered of late. “So it’s a pity. But it’s a copy of what happens this season.”

If Arsenal doesn’t win against Burnley on Sunday, and Chelsea beats Hull City, the Blues will extend their lead at the top to nine points – with every other team in the top six dropping points. So Saturday could be remembered not just as the day in which Guardiola’s struggles continued, but as the one when Chelsea practically locked up the title.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.