As Man City continues to fall deeper and deeper into a slump, Pep Guardiola is facing a splash of cold water to the face as his side slips further into the doldrums.

At the final whistle of Manchester City’s emphatic 4-nil defeat to Tottenham, it looked to me that the end of an era has arrived at Manchester City. The toll of climbing the mountain each season to stand at the top of it looks to have caught up to the world champions. There is little doubt that this day has been coming. Pep Guardiola alluded to this fact when speaking following the game.

Guardiola has been forced to come to terms with the longest losing streak of his managerial career, losing a fifth -straight match across all competitions as Man City capitulated at Spurs by a 4-0  score. 

Second-placed City hasn’t lost five games in a row since 2006 – two years before the Abu Dhabi takeover of the club and 10 years before Guardiola’s game-changing arrival on the blue side of Manchester.

As for Guardiola, widely regarded as the world’s best coach, he has never lost five straight matches anywhere in his illustrious time in management that began in 2007.

The closest he has come was in the 2014-15 season when, at Bayern Munich, his team lost in a penalty shootout in the German Cup followed by three straight defeats – two in the Bundesliga, when Bayern had already clinched the title, and once in the Champions League.

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager joined City in 2016 and has led the club to six Premier League titles, as well as a historic treble in 2022/23.

The Manchester club are currently enduring their worst run under Guardiola, having suffered five straight defeats and slipped eight points behind Liverpool in the Premier League title race.

The English champions fell to big defeats against Brighton , Tottenham Hotspur in the league cup and Bournemouth before a 4-1 hammering at Sporting CP in the UEFA Champions League.

City have claimed four successive English top-flight titles but their chances of a fifth have taken a hit following their poor run of form.

Guardiola has bemoaned the absence of Ballon d'Or winner Rodri, who was ruled out for the remainder of the season with an ACL injury.

Guardiola earlier facing an uncertain future at the Etihad Stadium with his previous contract running until the end of the 2024/25 season,  signed a contract extension which will put him in the hot seat for at least another two years.