Pep Guardiola felt Manchester City were at fault for Harry Kane’s match winning goal in our last gasp defeat to Tottenham Hotspur but was satisfied with his side’s overall performance.

The Premier League leaders looked to have rescued a point when Riyad Mahrez converted a 92nd minute penalty after VAR penalised Cristian Romero for handball, but were left empty handed after Kane nodded home Dejan Kulusevski’s cross in the fifth minute of added time.

CITY V SPORTING: GET YOUR TICKETS

Guardiola admitted a Spurs side who were content to defend deep and play on the counter-attack made life difficult for his team, forcing City to send cross after cross into a heavily guarded area.

And, whilst the visitors’ late goal meant we had nothing to show for our efforts, the Catalan had no complaints about his side’s performance.

“We performed well,” he said. “We were who we normally are.

“They defended in the 18-yard box. It was so difficult, we had to go outside and after they can run with the quality they had.

“Every time we played inside, we had to go outside and we crossed and for many actions were not there to score. I think we performed well, honestly.

“The first goal was the quality they had, the second was difficult to defend. The third was our mistake.”

This was the first time City had tasted defeat in the league in 16 games, having taken 43 points from the previous 45 available in an unbeaten run stretching back to October.

The loss reduces the defending champions lead at the top of the table to six points, though second placed Liverpool have a game in hand.

With the business end of the season approaching, Guardiola is under no illusions as to how difficult retaining our Premier League crown will be and says City will have to fight in every game if we’re to lift the trophy again in May.

DOWNLOAD THE MAN CITY APP

“It’s normal [to lose],” he added. “Especially in the Premier League.

“The teams at the bottom won all their games [this weekend]. Everyone fights for everything so it will be difficult. We know it.

“Today happened, we lost a game, we were close to a draw, maybe a win. Congratulations to Tottenham.

“We will recover this week and onto the next game. We have to fight for every game and every game we will try to win.

“We have to make a lot of points to be champion and that is what we will try to do.”