Pep Guardiola said Manchester City are in a "fragile" period after a 4-0 drubbing at home to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday condemned them to a third Premier League defeat in a row and five points off the title race.
City had early chances to break the deadlock but came up against an inspired Guglielmo Vicario in goal for the visitors, while Spurs were ruthless.
James Maddison, celebrating his 28th birthday, turned in a man-of-the-match performance with two first-half strikes with Pedro Porro and Brennan Johnson adding the extras in the second period.
It was City's fifth straight defeat across competitions and brought to a halt a 52-match unbeaten home record for Guardiola's side.
League leaders Liverpool can inflict more misery on Sunday when they travel to face basement club Southampton, with City facing a daunting trip to Anfield next Sunday.
If Liverpool beat Southampton and City, they will be 11 points ahead of Guardiola's men.
Former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss Guardiola only this week signed a two-year contract extension until 2027.
But hopes that would bring the positivity needed to turn City's fortunes around proved short-lived.
"In eight years we have never lived this kind of situation," said Guardiola, whose side face Feyenoord in the Uefa Champions League on Tuesday.
"Now we have to live it and break it winning the next games, especially the next one. Now we see things in one way, maybe in a few weeks we see it differently."
The loss of Rodri to a season's ending knee injury has been a hammer blow to City's title defence and the Spaniard's absence on the pitch was keenly felt at the Etihad Stadium.
The Ballon d'Or winner could only watch on in horror as City were exposed by the pace and energy of Pape Matar Sarr and Maddison in midfield.
Maddison opened the scoring with Spurs' first attack, ghosting beyond Ilkay Gundogan with a surging run into the City box to slot home Dejan Kulusevski's inviting cross.
Maddison was celebrating again on 20 minutes when he exchanged passed with Spurs captain Son Heung-min and dinked a delightful finish over the advancing Ederson to make it 2-0.
A Spurs counterattack on 52 minutes saw Kulusevski release Dominic Solanke before the England striker cut the ball back for Porro to smash home in the right corner.
Timo Werner then teed up fellow substitute Johnson to slide in Tottenham's fourth goal to put the icing on a clinical performance for the North London club.
It was a chastening experience for Guardiola's side, who have rewritten the record books of English football in recent years by winning four consecutive Premier League titles.
But he recognised that they are stuck in a negative mental spiral after a series of unexpected defeats.
"We are a bit fragile right now, that is obvious for the fact that we struggled today to score goals. And after when they arrived, they scored," he added.
"We are playing a little bit in our thoughts, with a little bit of negativity, but it's normal. Football is a sense of mood. And when you win a lot, there's continuity that gives us self-confidence that you can do it.
"When you lose three games in a row in the Premier League, that situation is always a little bit there."
City defender Kyle Walker said it was vital the team went "back to the basics and got a clean sheet".
He added: "If we concede four goals at home we have to score five. It's not just the back four, five or six – it's all 11 players on the pitch."
Postecoglou challenges players
Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou challenged his players to maintain the standards set in Saturday’s stunning win at City having doubled down on their football principles in style.
Spurs went into the international break on the back of a chastening 2-1 home loss to promoted Ipswich Town but returned from it with a jaw-dropping 4-0 victory at the Etihad Stadium.
“You don’t come to a place like this thinking that it’s going to be probably as convincing as it was for us in terms of the way we handled [things],” Postecoglou said.
“Look, I’ve said before, City test you in every football way possible. You’ve got to do a bit of everything – you’ve got to defend, you’ve got to work hard, you’ve got to be disciplined, then you’ve got to play football.
“I thought all four areas we got to a really strong level today, where the players were just really determined to make sure that after obviously a disappointing game last game we just got back to our core beliefs as a team.
“Credit to the lads. I thought they were outstanding today because we knew first 10 minutes they’d come out firing.
“Obviously, the four losses they’d had were away from home, so being at home there’d be an energy in the stadium.
“We were going to have to sort of weather the storm, which I thought we did fairly well, and then we just grew into the game.
“Just so pleased for the players in the belief they have in trying to play the way we want to, and then you get a reward like that. I think it just hopefully furthers our progression.”
