Pep Guardiola... are you SURE you want to stay?! Man City flops embarrassed their manager with horrific display against Tottenham - sorting out this mess is the biggest challenge he's ever had to face

Never mind the scale of this defeat. The fact that City had lost at all at home was a big surprise. The last time they had tasted defeat at the Etihad Stadium in any competition was in November 2022 when they were beaten by Brentford. But that defeat came courtesy of a 98th-minute goal from Ivan Toney and could have been written off as unlucky.

There was nothing unfortunate about this defeat, though. This was a bloodbath. Tottenham repeatedly passed their way through their generous hosts and City had Ederson to thank for keeping the scoreline dignified in the first half, saving from Dominic Solanke and Son Heung-min.

Double scorer James Maddison said "these are rare days" as he revelled in Tottenham's victory but this was not a one-off for City, not based on their recent form. The champions have conceded 14 goals in their last five games, shipping four in two of their last three. Guardiola could and did point to the players who were out injured such as Rodri, Ruben Dias, Mateo Kovacic and Jeremy Doku, but his starting XI was packed with experience. Eleven players who got on the pitch on Saturday played in the 2023 Champions League final.

Tottenham, meanwhile, were missing both of their first-choice centre-backs Micky van de Ven and Christian Romero, and had five teenagers on their bench. As Gary Neville put it on Sky Sports: "The fact you can't score a goal against the two centre-backs of Ben Davies and Radu Dragusin, that's the biggest worry - they didn't have that clinical edge. This is more than just Rodri, far more."

Maybe the experience was the problem. This side look aged. Kyle Walker and Ilkay Gundgogan are both 34 and it is showing. Walker struggled to get back to join the defence for the second goal and was nowhere to be seen when Spurs scored their goals in the second half. "Goodness gracious me," is how Neville reacted when Timo Werner easily dribbled past Walker to tee up Brennan Johnson for the fourth goal.

Gundogan has not looked anything like the player he was when he departed as a treble winner in June 2023. Perhaps a year in La Liga, which is played at a much lower intensity than the Premier League, has caused him damage. But even a prime Gundogan was never the best man to hold a midfield together on his own, and that is what he was asked to do here in the absence of Rodri and Kovacic.

"They're off it, they're short," added Neville. "Things aren't quite clicking; Gundogan couldn't get near anybody, the focus and balance wasn't right with Rico Lewis, Bernardo Silva and they didn't have enough energy to get around them."

Guardiola acknowledged that Spurs had the physical edge and that he sought to counter it by controlling the game with many midfielders. That is not new for this City side. What is new is the lack of belief. And Guardiola did not hide it. "We are a bit fragile right now, that is obvious for the fact that we struggled today to score goals," he said.

"And after when they arrived [in the area], they scored. We are playing a little bit in our thoughts, with a little bit of negativity, but it's normal. So football is a sense of mood. And when you win a lot, there's continuity that gives us self-belief that you can do it. And when you lose three games in a row in the Premier League, it's the opposite, that situation [fragility] is always a little bit there."

It is surprising to hear Guardiola use such language about a team who are normally so resilient. This is the team that won the treble and then did what no team had done in 135 years of English football, lift a fourth consecutive league title. But when fruit is at its ripest, it is also closest to going rotten. Guardiola seemed to be suggesting something similar could be happening to his team.

"The exceptionality of what we have lived over the last eight years is not eternal. So sometimes it happens, sometimes you drop a little bit," Guardiola said. "We were a team that was always very consistent. We conceded few chances. And now, lately, we concede more than usual. Our game was about control because we're not a team created to run box-to-box 40 times in a game. We are not built for that. We are not good at that. But always, we were a team that conceded few chances. And sometimes we lost games. Like I said, we conceded one or two times. But now we concede more."

Guardiola was in no mood to talk about City's chances of keeping the title. The gap between them and Liverpool is five points and could be eight points by Sunday evening. Next week City visit Anfield, where they have not won a game with fans in the stadium since 2003. Lose and they will be 11 points behind Arne Slot's side, a gap Guardiola admitted is unsurmountable.

"When you lose three Premier League games in a row, the most, the wrong thing to say is we are going to be champions. Maybe I will not be good enough to get us back in that situation. It's exceptional what we have done in the past. But losing three Premier League games in a row can happen. It happened to me as a football player in Barcelona. Now everything is a little bit against us. The best way to go through in that position is to accept the reality."

City have had their share of blips under Guardiola but each time they have come through them before and come back stronger. The 2020-21 season was the best example, when they won just five of their first 12 games, losing 2-0 at Tottenham and getting thrashed 5-2 at home by Leicester. They went on to win their next 15. This slide, however, feels different.

"We've seen City lose the odd game here, but we've very rarely seen them outplayed in every department, but that's what we're watching," said Neville. "They look well short. As short as I've seen them since Pep's first season. I've not seen them as bad as this, how they've been in the last few weeks. It seems madness, when you think about what they've achieved. They're easy to play against and teams are encouraged when playing them. The vulnerabilities are clear for everyone to see."

If Neville is right, then it is a good thing that Guardiola has signed that contract. If the malaise continues until the end of the season, it would be a terrible way for Guardiola's glorious era to come to an end. He might have to write this season off, as he did in the first campaign when he was getting to grips with the new league. That was the first and only season in which he didn't win a trophy as a manager.

City responded by giving him a £265m ($332m) war-chest to spend on players, many of them defenders, and the team won the league with a record-breaking 100 points. Don't rule them out doing the same. This does not feel like the crumbling of a football empire but rather the changing of the guard. An overhaul is needed, and Guardiola is the best man to lead it. But he will need time and a lot of mental strength to see it through.