City have failed to score in more than six hours of football away to Spurs since they took residence in their new home and the boss admits that it is a recurring theme in this fixture.
“Spurs are a tough rival for us,” said Pep.
“I always have the feeling we are good when we play here, but we cannot get the results.
“You see the stats every time we play here. Apart from the first season at White Hart Lane, we were really good.
“But stats are stats. It’s not easy to control. You lose the ball and they make transitions, they run really well with the ball.
“Moura runs and they make you defend 40 meters behind. We lost simple balls in the parts of our process which we can’t do if we want to be stable as a team.
“The intention was quite good. We arrived many times. We are one against one a lot. But in the end we could not dribble, shoot and score goals.
“But the way we started showed me the team is there. We played with personality. Now it’s training and preparing for the next one.
“We did everything to win.. The players have 90 minutes in the legs and we know have another week to prepare for Norwich.
“Hopefully players can come back step by step,”
The City boss believes that the hosts were allowed to run at his defence on too many occasions, adding: “We started really well but after 20 minutes we allowed them too much running in transition.
“With Son, Bergwijn and Lucas Moura, we wanted to avoid that.
“In general, we showed a good spirit and good intention and we arrived in the final third many times, but we could not be clinical enough. Son scores and we lose.”
Asked whether City’s lack of cutting edge in front of goal was an issue, the Catalan responded: “We have the same players as last season. Sergio could only play several games. We have the same players.
“It’s the same people as last season. It happened. We were there, we arrived many times but we could not score. We are good enough to create chances and score goals - we will do it. “
