• James Maddison scored twice in seven first-half minutes
  • Pedro Porro and Brennan Johnson were on target after the break
  • Manchester City are enduring their worst run of form since 2006

Manchester City were condemned to an unprecedented fifth consecutive defeat as a brilliant Tottenham Hotspur romped to a deserved 4-0 victory on Saturday evening.

James Maddison fired the visitors in front completely against the run of play, exposing the widening cracks in City's fragile confidence. Tottenham's divisive playmaker doubled his tally in the 20th minute as the reigning champions wobbled uncontrollably. Pedro Porro added a third at the start of the second half before Brennan Johnson made it 4-0.

Pep Guardiola, fresh from penning a two-year contract extension, has never suffered such a sustained run of defeats. Beyond the result, the criminally inept performance will be of even greater concern.

How the game unfolded

Still wounded by four successive defeats heading into the international break, City started in a blur of channelled rage. Erling Haaland lined up at the tip of a reshaped setup and was presented with two clear openings inside the first ten minutes, only to squander them both.

This is not only just a historically poor run for Guardiola, but Man City, too. The Cityzens' five successive losses is their worst streak in over 18 years.

Fortunately, City's recent malaise has arrived in three different competitions so their quest to claim a fifth Premier League title hasn't been compromised just yet. However, defeats away from home to Bournemouth, Brighton & Hove Albion and Tottenham Hotspur mean the perennial champions has slipped behind league leaders Liverpool.

Their demise kick-started with a Carabao Cup defeat at Tottenham as City's woes in N17 reared their ugly head once again. However, this was a contest and competition Guardiola would have been willing to sacrifice given the demanding nature of their schedule. After losing 2-1 at Bournemouth, City failed to control the transition in Lisbon as Viktor Gyokeres ran amok in Sporting CP's 4-1 triumph over Guardiola's side.

It initially seemed as if City would avoid a fourth-straight defeat at the AMEX Stadium when Erling Haaland put the Cityzens into a first-half lead, but Brighton roared back after the restart and scored twice in quick succession to down the champions. It was the first time Haaland had lost a Premier League match he'd scored in and only the fourth time Guardiola has lost back-to-back Premier League games.

Spurs returned to the Etihad to cement their status as City's ultimate bogey team, romping to a deserved 4-0 win. Not only was it the first time City had suffered three top-flight defeats during Guardiola's reign, but that seismic loss was the heaviest home defeat of the Catalan coach's entire career.

Guardiola never lost more than two successive games at Barcelona, even when his side relinquished control of Spain to Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid in 2011/12.

The Spaniard took the Bayern Munich job following a year's sabbatical in 2013 and quickly enjoyed success in Bavaria. In his second season, Bayern had wrapped up another Bundesliga title by the end of April which allowed Guardiola to focus on the DFB-Pokal and Champions League during the final month of the campaign.

As a result, the Spaniard rotated heavily as Bayern were beaten in the league by Bayer Leverkusen before Pepe Reina's 13th-minute sending-off played a big role in their defeat to Augsburg. In between those fixtures, Bayern travelled to Pep's old stomping ground for the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals.

The year prior, Guardiola sacrificed midfield control in favour of a 4-2-4 which allowed Real Madrid to run riot on the counter-attack at the Allianz Arena, thumping Bayern 4-0 which saw them into the final. On this occasion, Pep's tactical overthought wasn't so costly as he changed tack soon after realising his mistake. He left his back three on an island against Barcelona's all-time great 'MSN' frontline, but Barca's three goals didn't arrive until late on in the contest. Still, Bayern's 3-0 defeat left them with a mountain they couldn't quite summit in the return leg.

They won 3-2 in Munich, thus succumbing on aggregate, and would then lose their third-straight Bundesliga game to Freiburg away from home