Premier League title race: We're about to learn more about Pep Guardiola's Man City than ever before

City were chasing perfection and an unprecedented quadruple only to fall short in the cruellest of circumstances. Now they must bounce back

As Kevin De Bruyne revealed to the world at the start of this monumental 10 days for Manchester City, Pep Guardiola is not just interested in winning. “He wants perfection.” And there’s a problem with chasing perfection. One wrong move, you fall short.

It might be one unfavourable deflection off an arm in a natural position. One half of your striker’s body offside when the ball ricochets through to him. One official with a video replay, scrolling back and forth then back again, searching for that one minor transgression.

This is arguably the cruellest manner of defeat imaginable for City. For starters, it was a victory. On aggregate, it was a 4-4 draw. The archaic away goals rule was the decider. And then there was the influence of VAR, a far more modern mode of arbitration.

There can be no complaint about either of the key video technology decisions - either Fernando Llorente’s decisive third Tottenham goal or Raheem Sterling’s potential stoppage-time winner, ruled out for offside. Both were correct by the book.

But for the offside, Guardiola will wonder why the rule treats a ‘touch’ like Bernardo Silva’s - intentional or not - as if it was a deliberate pass. He will also lament that if new handball regulations had been implemented this season, Llorente’s goal would not have stood.

“Tomorrow will be tough,” the City manager admitted in his post-match press conference, contemplating a day of heavy hearts rather than heavy heads in Manchester. And yet, given that evening’s events, given the significance of this competition, he was unusually serene.

“It is cruel but we have to accept it. It was a nice game for everybody,” he said. This was not the Guardiola sent to the stands against Liverpool at this stage last season, having stormed onto the pitch to confront referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz.

Nor was it the agitated, needlessly sarcastic Guardiola that had previewed this second leg on Tuesday. “Second half we did everything,” he went on after the final whistle. “Congratulations Tottenham and all the best for the semi-finals.”

They were the words and it was the demeanour of someone who knows there is much left to play for. Tottenham, of course, return to the Etihad on Saturday, in a game which surely will not reach the heights of Wednesday’s quarter-final, but matches it in terms of importance.

Then, less than a week from now, there is a Manchester derby at Old Trafford that simply must be won. A comparison of City and United’s European exits this week would suggest that there is only one winner. For Guardiola, it has to be City or else Liverpool might take advantage.

It may, in fact, be that we are about to learn more about Guardiola’s City than we have ever learnt before during his tenure. Certainly, we will learn more than we have learnt in the last 20 months, since the start of their record-breaking 2017-18 campaign.

City must bounce back almost immediately (PA)

“We have to stand up and react,” Guardiola said, when asked about how his players will respond to this setback. “It is a close time and the same team… We fought for nine or 10 months in the Premier League. Of course it is tough and we have to do it until the end.”

And go to the end they will, pursuing every last prize, even if their season has just been shortened by a couple of weeks. The quadruple is gone now. City are no longer chasing perfection. But as Guardiola knows well, that’s the thing with chasing perfection. Fall short and you’re still not far off.