Chelsea vs Manchester City: Signs Pep Guardiola’s side would see unbeaten record ended were already there

One word will be used more than any other to describe City’s first defeat of the season: ‘complacency’

Pep Guardiola was an aggrieved figure on the touchline (Reuters)

It may sound like a slightly ridiculous thing to say about a team that, before today, had dropped only four points all season and playing as Manchester City, but signs that Pep Guardiola's side would soon see their unbeaten record come to an end.

Take the 3-1 victory over Bournemouth a week ago, when City slumbered after Bernardo Silva's opener, began merely going through motions rather than trying to kill the game off, and duly conceded an equaliser to Callum Wilson.

Then on Tuesday night, at Vicarage Road, two goals ahead and with the three points seemingly claimed, Abdoulaye Doucouré dragged Watford back into the contest and ensured there would be a nervy finish.

The defensive issues, small but significant, should not be ignored either. City have now kept just one clean sheet in their last five matches, having kept five in a row before that.

And so, though they spent 45 minutes being comfortably second-best, Chelsea scoring out of nothing through N'Golo Kanté on the cusp of half-time to establish an unlikely lead was not entirely surprising, despite it coming from their first attempt at goal.

David Luiz would double Chelsea's lead in the 77th minute, punishing City's strangely limp efforts to claw their way back. This game, however, was lost in the first half. One word will be used more than any other to describe this first defeat of the season: 'complacency'.

It is a simple explanation and almost certainly not an entire one. The absence of Sergio Aguero was costly, with Guardiola's in-form wingers unable to be effective, central focal points, and Gabriel Jesus in a fit of miserable scoring form.

Yet it is hard not to conclude that City also, understandably, began to believe their own hype. It is an inevitable consequence of playing so well, winning so handily. Confidence rises and it can be challenging to keep it in check.

For all their dominance in the first half here, the visitors managed just four attempts at Kepa Arrizabalaga's goal. The sense throughout was still that a City goal was inevitable. That eventually, despite little urgency on their part, it would come. It did not and they were punished.

Manchester City tasted defeat for the first time this season (AFP/Getty Images)

In City's defence, they have perhaps not been helped by the curious way in which their fixtures have fallen. Guardiola's side have played five of the bottom six at home already this season, beating them by an aggregate score of 22-3, and the three goals conceded arguably tell as much about this side as the 22 scored.

Should Huddersfield Town, Newcastle United and Southampton - the three lowest-scoring sides in the top-flight - have scored at the Etihad this season, against a supposedly mean defence? All three did, in games City would ultimately win comfortably. Huddersfield and Southampton's goals came when City were three goals ahead.

What is that down to if not a certain complacency and a sense that they could afford to concede a goal here and there if six were going in at the other end?

The flip side to playing so many of the division's weakest teams at home is that they have played many of the better sides away, and their hopes of retaining the title remain particularly strong given that they have already travelled to the Emirates, Wembley and Anfield and left each of them undefeated.

But the long run of playing weaker sides at Etihad every other week, beating them handsomely and building up the goal difference column has perhaps distorted the perception of this still brilliant team and their perceptions of themselves.

Even a team this good, most likely the best of the Premier League era, cannot take anything for granted.