Manchester City’s Premier League title charge took a huge blow after their shock 2-1 loss to Newcastle on Tuesday night.
City had been on a seven-match winning streak in all competitions since the turn of the year.
And since conceding a goal in their 2-1 league win over Liverpool on January 3, Pep Guardiola’s manne had scored 30 goals without reply in six matches.
With Sergio Aguero giving the champions the lead after just 24 seconds at St James, it looked like Guardiola would win his 100th league game in charge.
But City lost their way and conceded a Salomon Rondon strike and a Matt Ritchie penalty in the second half to open the door for league leaders Liverpool to increase their lead to seven points on Wednesday night.
And a disappointed Guardiola says: “We had a chance today to reduce the lead.
“When you are behind, you have to win games and we couldn’t do that.
“It was not our best night, we didn’t make a good performance. We didn’t take the rhythm of the game, it was slow and we weren’t aggressive enough...
“The game was not good. We did not defend the second ball well, we have to improve.”
City are still in with a shout for the quadruple, being in the League Cup final and also still in the FA Cup and Champions League.
And when asked if all the effort is taking its toll on the squad, the Catalan says: “I know the challenge is big, being in all competitions is what it is.
“If you want to go up as a club, you have to accept that challenge. I prefer to be in that position.”
Guardiola missed out on the chance to set a new winning record after 100 games in charge – tying with Jose Mourinho with 73 wins.