Pep Guardiola Reveals Why De Bruyne, Foden Were Benched In City's 1-0 Loss To Spurs

Pep Guardiola has revealed the reasons behind his decision to bench Phil Foden and Kevin de Bruyne in Manchester City's 1-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.

Guardiola's City slipped further in the Premier League title race following their loss in North London on Sunday. They are five points behind leaders Arsenal, who have a game in hand and a chance to increase the deficit further.

The Spanish boss made four changes from the Manchester City side that last played in the Premier League, with De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Aymeric Laporte dropping to the bench.

Ahead of the game on Sunday, when reporters asked Guardiola if De Bruyne's absence from his starting XI was "purely tactical," the Etihad manager replied, "Yeah, definitely."

While De Bruyne came off the bench in the second half, replacing Riyad Mahrez, 22-year-old Foden was not even a part of Manchester City's matchday squad against Spurs.

"He was there yesterday in the hotel and he felt unwell – the whole night really bad and he should come back to Manchester," said Guardiola.

Meanwhile, Manchester City's in-form striker Erling Haaland had a nightmare game as he failed to have a single shot for the first time in a Premier League game. Haaland, who moved from Borussia Dortmund to City in the summer of 2022, has netted 31 goals in 27 matches in all competitions this season.

City have now played five games at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and have finished on the losing side on all occasions.

In an otherwise poor evening in North London, Guardiola singled out midfielder Jack Grealish for his "good mentality."

"[He was] so aggressive, so committed and had the chances for assists. A lot of interruptions as well, but his mentality and aggression to do it, it was good," Guardiola said of Grealish, who was the most fouled player in the game.

Harry Kane scored the winner for Spurs, which also made the English striker the club's all-time leading scorer. Kane surpassed legendary Jimmy Greaves with his 267th goal for the Spurs. It was also Kane's 200th goal in the Premier League - only Alan Shearer (260 goals) and Wayne Rooney (208) have scored more than the Spurs star.