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#2 Fatigue
Manchester City's emphatic performance till this point this season means they are still in the running for a unique quadruple.
The League Cup has already been wrapped up, while they are also through to the final of the FA Cup and are currently engaged in an intense battle with Liverpool for league glory.
This consequently means that the club has extra pile of fixtures to prosecute, more than most teams, and this hands an edge to their rivals.
To put this in perspective, since the start of January, Manchester City have been involved in 23 matches (which is more than any other club in Europe's top five leagues), while their Champions League opponents Tottenham have prosecuted just 19 matches.
In essence, City have played four matches more - the equivalent of six hours extra of top professional football and this has undoubtedly taken a massive toll on their player's bodies.
It is well established that Guardiola has arguably the largest squad in all of Europe, but there is only so much rotation that can be done without resorting to a core group of trusted players to get the job done at the business end of the campaign.
In last weekend's FA Cup semifinal clash with Brighton, which sealed their passage to the final, City started with the seven of the same 11 which prosecuted the game with Tottenham, hence while City players were toiling and sweating it out on the field for 90 minutes, their Tottenham counterparts were getting rests ahead of their epic showdown.
City entered the clash against Spurs with barely a two-day rest, while the Tottenham players were last in action six days ago and the difference in freshness was obvious from the get go, as the Citizens were lacking in the usual fluidity and slick play associated with them.
Pep Guardiola is attempting to rewrite history with Manchester City and given the gruelling nature of top level professional football, the sad reality is that their quest comes at a cost and unfortunately, that reality played a part in Manchester City losing to Tottenham.
