Despite a sustained spell of second-half pressure, with substitute David Silva and Leroy Sane going tantalisingly close to a winner, the Potters held on.
The result leaves City in third place in the Premier League, but there is little time to reflect on a frustrating evening with the FA Cup quarter-final clash away at Middlesbrough coming up on Saturday lunchtime.
Guardiola said: “They defended deep and it was complicated to find the players between the lines. We were there in the last minutes. I don’t have regrets about how they ran, how they fought.
“It’s not easy when the opponents are there. We created a lot of situations for the last pass and sometimes we missed it.
“When Silva came in, we created a few more chances. When you analyse the chances we had, I don’t really remember more than one Stoke chance.”
City made three changes to their starting XI with Silva and John Stones dropping to the bench and Raheem Sterling rested.
When asked how he was juggling all the competitions City are involved in - after Saturday’s FA Cup tie, the Blues then travel to Monaco in the Champions League last 16 second leg next week - Guardiola said: “The priority is the next game.
“In two and a half days, we have another game. In three or four days, we travel to France to play Monaco and then we have another game against Liverpool. We have to make rotations when we play a lot of games.”
On the title race and Chelsea’s 10-point lead Guardiola reflected: “The gap was big and is still big. We have to focus game by game.”
