Man City player ratings v Tottenham - One ‘worrying’ 4/10 but 8/10 given in Carabao Cup loss - gallery

Manchester City were beaten 2-1 by Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday night, a result that saw them crash out of the Carabao Cup.

A youthful City side - that featured six changes from the weekend - were far from their best and were cut open too often at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with Erling Haaland watching from the bench as the Blues failed to net a decisive late equaliser.

It took Spurs just five minutes to find the game’s opening goal. The hosts’ brave possession-based style paid off as they broke through City’s high press, and with Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake pushed up, suddenly three Tottenham attackers were hurtling towards the City goal.

John Stones and Rico Lewis were left helpless as Dejan Kulusevski played the ball across for Timo Werner to finish first time.

It was symptomatic of City’s performance in the early stages. Pep Guardiola’s side looked far too susceptible through the middle, misplaced a surprising number of straightforward passes and lacked incision. It took until the 32nd minute for City to muster a shot.

By then, they were 2-0 down, with Pape Sarr curling a sumptuous effort into the bottom corner following a well-worked corner routine. The unsighted Stefan Ortega could do nothing as for the second time on the night he saw the ball flash past him.

But after the dismal start, City ended the half on top. Phil Foden saw more of the ball, the visitors moved it with more zip and there was a constant threat in the wide areas. It was no surprise that the two wingers combined to get City back on level terms as Savinho’s cross to the back post was tapped in by Matheus Nunes in the final minute of the four allocated for injury-time.

City’s rejuvenated display was short-lived though, and Spurs took control once again in the early stages of the second half, with Ortega making two excellent saves to deny Brennan Johnson and Kulusevski, while Werner fired off target after dribbling almost the entire length of the City half.

The Blues made two changes at the break and two more at the start of the first half. The final substitution was enforced as Savinho had to be taken off on stretcher - an alarming update for Guardiola that could bring his number of absentees up to eight. Manuel Akanji also sustained a knock in the warm-up that forced him to drop out of the starting line-up.

It was City’s youngsters who carried the greatest threat in the latter stages and Jacob Wright failed to score from any of his three decent chances, one of which forced Guglielmo Vicario into an excellent save. The Spurs keeper then had to thank Yves Bissouma late on as he slid and cleared Nico O’Reily’s goal-bound effort off the line.

Josko Gvardiol also headed wide from a corner in the 89th minute, but City couldn’t find the decisive late goal with Haalandsat on the bench. Here’s how we rated the City players...