Pep Guardiola refuses to point finger after Man City star has game to forget

James Trafford endured a difficult afternoon as Manchester City were beaten 2-0 by Tottenham on Saturday but Pep Guardiola refused to single out his new goalkeeper

Pep Guardiola refused to point a finger of blame at James Trafford after the young keeper’s nightmare mistake. Trafford, 22, who returned to Manchester City from Burnley in a £27million deal this summer after two years at Turf Moor, saw his horror pass cost the Blues a goal as Tottenham claimed their second successive win of the new season.

The former England Under-21 international was given the nod ahead of Ederson again with the Brazilian linked to a move to Galatasaray. Trafford’s error allowed Tottenham midfielder Joao Palhinha to add a second goal on the stroke of half time after Brennan Johnson’s opener 10 minutes earlier.

But Guardiola said: “James made a good first game last week and I decided to continue with him. When I take decisions in the first part of the season people think this is the line-up. But it was today that I decided and it is what it is.

“We missed the simple things today but the effort and running was extraordinary and I have no doubts. We had a good pre-season and when we won at Wolves last week everyone said everything was fine.

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“But I said last week we still had work to do – and now it’s the same after this defeat. We have to improve. Step by step until we make it click and make the good connections. Now we have seven days rest and then Brighton before the international break.”

Guardiola opted to leave Ilkay Gundogan and Manuel Akanji out of his squad. Both players are also being targeted by Galatasaray. But Guardiola said: “I had to leave Rodri and Phil Foden out last week because we have so many players.

“I have to rotate. In the next games it will be others who are left out. It is not more serious than that.”

City defender Ruben Dias said: “Spurs are a team who can be very dangerous, they started the game very well. We didn’t react the best way in sticking to our game.

“The second goal is unfortunate, it cannot happen. It’s frustrating because we want to win in front of our fans in our first home game.”

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