City squander three-goal lead as team self-destructs

At least it was not a sixth successive defeat.

- RICHARD JOLLY

And that, perhaps, is the only consolation Pep Guardiola and Manchester City could derive from an evening when their losing run ended but their self-destructive streak was highlighted. Guardiola has won a Premier League with a three-goal comeback at the Etihad Stadium. Here, he lost a lead with one.

For Feyenoord it was a spectacular, seminal fightback: 3-0 down after 74 minutes, they took an improbable point with an incredible response. For their hosts, it showed a self-destructive streak that seemed confined to the days when Joe Royle talked of “Cityitis” has returned and the defensive fragility that Guardiola lamented when Tottenham beat his City 4-0 on Saturday remains. “It is difficult to swallow now,” he said.

He defended an errant defender when he could have cursed his near-namesake: Josko Gvardiol had a shocking quarter of an hour when he was culpable for at least two goals. “We are a team who concede few, few goals over these eight or nine years,” said Guardiola. Now, for the first time since 1963, City have conceded at least two in six successive matches.

In the space of 15 minutes, City dropped from fifth to 15th in the Champions League table. From the jaws of their first victory in a month, City snatched ignominy. A team who used to be defined by control ended with chaos. Even as they could have won it, Jack Grealish striking the bar with a deflected effort in injurytime, they have rarely looked as flawed or as fraught. Even if Feyenoord could not follow in the footsteps of Tottenham (twice), Bournemouth, Brighton and Sporting CP, City seemed a team falling apart.