Villa slipped up by suffering a second successive home defeat, this time to Brentford, while Manchester City showed the sort of carelessness, complacency and soft centre that is a serious weakness when casting aside a 2-0 lead at Tottenham Hotspur to take only a point.
If the cheers inside the vast Tottenham Hotspur Stadium were deafening when Dominic Solanke’s “scorpion kick” drew his side level with 20 minutes left, they might just have been even louder four miles away in Arsenal‘s part of north London.
Guardiola put on his bravest face to tell BBC Sport: “We played a really good game in general. At 70 minutes they put more balls in behind, more players there, more players in the middle to attack more direct.
“They found a goal and we know what’s happened and after that they had the momentum. The Premier League is like that. We had our momentum again at the end.
“It is a setback but we are still there, we move on. There are 14 games to go and a lot of points. We will see.”
Antoine Semenyo, who scored City’s second goal, was also defiant as he told BBC Sport: “The way we set up was to draw them out a little bit. It worked perfectly in the first half. I had another chance before my goal. I am kicking myself but we have to go again.
“Winning would definitely have helped our cause but it is not over yet. There are 14 games to go so anything can happen.”
Guardiola must still be furious and frustrated at how City were so much in command at half-time with a two-goal advantage, yet somehow contrived to cast aside two points and almost lose all three.
Spurs showed grit to get back and draw, but City were the architects of their own downfall as they were rattled out of calm control by Thomas Frank’s side, who have still only won two home league games out of 12 this season.
On this evidence, even moreso against these opponents, this flawed City showed they can be got at and undermined in a manner that does not give confidence they will overhaul Arsenal.
This was the first time City had led by 2+ goals at half time in a game but failed to win since April 2018 (3-2 defeat to Manchester United). They had won on each of the last 115 occasions when leading by 2+ goals at the break in all competitions.
Emery has always played down Villa’s title aspirations as part of expectation management, but they were in the conversation only for those home losses to Everton then Brentford to perhaps confirm his belief that his side were always the long shot contenders.
