Pep Guardiola: Manchester City Had 'a Bad Day' vs. Wolves, 'Didn't Play Good'

Pep Guardiola was left to lament an off day after Manchester City lost 2-0 at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League on Sunday.

The result left City eight points behind Liverpool, but Guardiola was philosophical about his team's performance, per Simon Bajkowski of the Manchester Evening News: "It was a bad day, sometimes it happens. We started quite well and after we conceded two situations in our buildup where it's impossible to defend, we got a little bit nervous."

Guardiola was undone twice on the break by Adama Traore late on, but he felt his team was exposed while trying to win the game: "We controlled them better in the second half but at the end with us attacking and people up front, we lost balls in positions it is so difficult and they were clinical. Before that we hit the post we had actions but the way we played was not good. It was not a good day, we didn't play good."

Although the defeat has inflicted significant early damage on City's bid to win a third title in a row, Guardiola thinks there are enough games left to claw back the difference.

For now, Guardiola doesn't want his players focused on Liverpool:

It's a reasonable notion given how the Citizens overcame a seven-point deficit during the second half of last season to retain the title. However, the difference is Guardiola's squad was much stronger in the last campaign.

Now, he's dealing with a litany of injuries, most notably to centre-backs Aymeric Laporte and John Stones. Their absences have forced Guardiola to pair holding midfielder Fernandinho alongside mistake-prone Nicolas Otamendi at the heart of a makeshift back four.

Both were beaten routinely by Wolves' pace on the counter. Even so, Guardiola still defended the pair, saying "they were quite good. They suffered because we lost possession in front of them," per Stuart Brennan of the Manchester Evening News.

While not many would agree with Guardiola's assessment of the vulnerable centre-back performances, there were other problems in defence. Left-back Benjamin Mendy missed out, forcing summer signing Joao Cancelo, nominally a right-back, to take his place.

Guardiola did move Cancelo back to the right at the start of the second half after substituting Kyle Walker and introducing converted midfielder Oleksandr Zinchenko to play left. The merry-go-round at the edges of City's defence summed up how much Guardiola and his staff are having to scramble to try and cover up a growing number of gaps.

Wolves ruthlessly exploited those gaps with a well-drilled series of breaks that maximised the pace of goalscorer Traore and the power and vision of striker Raul Jimenez, who assisted both goals.

The same formula served Wolves well last season and continues to be refined by manager Nuno Espirito Santo, who has caused Guardiola problems in the past:

Yet before alarm bells start ringing, it's important to place this defeat in context. It represented a rare slip for the Citizens, who are usually irresistible at home:

Liverpool are in the box seat in the title race, but aside from goalkeeper Alisson Becker, the Reds haven't suffered many long-term injuries and have been able to keep their core group together. City still have enough match-winners in forward areas to make this race more intense, even if Guardiola will need to get increasingly creative to fortify a threadbare defence.