A title challenge

Pep takes hard look at himself

half, when you have that momentum, you have to close the door on the opponents. And we didn’t close it against United.

“As well as we played in the first half, you have to realise that sometimes it’s not enough. At 2-0 the game is never over.”

City’s title coronation party was wrecked when they threw away a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 and Guardiola is concerned at the way his side collapsed.

In fact, City conceded three goals in 19 minutes in their Champions League first leg against Liverpool, while United scored their three goals in 16 minutes early in the second half.

Paul Pogba’s two strikes were separated by just 97 seconds.

City also conceded three in nine minutes on their league visit to Anfield in January.

It is an alarming trait in the big games that is worrying Guardiola and is not confined to his City team.

His Bayern Munich side conceded three in the final 13 minutes against Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final in 2015 and three in 18 minutes in the second leg of their semi-final against Real Madrid in 2014. He said: “I thought about that many times. I’ve dropped a lot of Champions League games in the space of 10 or 15 minutes. I remember my Munich team being 0-0 against Barcelona after 77 minutes but we ended up losing 3-0. Maybe it’s my fault. I have to think about it.”

Midfielder Fernandinho said: “Two defeats in a row is something we hadn’t experienced before. It was a shock and we have to react. After a shock the top teams react fast.”