Tottenham 2 - 1 City
It seems to be the first defeat for City this season. But judging by Pep's satisfied face, he is completely satisfied to miss unimportant games here and concentrate on other tournaments. City were eliminated very early last year too.
By the way, despite the modest score, it was not a tough equal fight, Tottenham should have scored at least one more goal, while City did not have any more chances.
Pep Guardiola is not showing concern to the EFL Cup since he won the title like four times in a row, his team got eliminated last season early as you have said and he also didn’t show concern same as this season. His focus is the Premier League and maybe FA Cup, but he need to be very serious if he wants to win the Premier League this season because Arne Slot and Arteta are there to give him a tough competition.
Liverpool is the top competitor for now because they have been doing very well since the beginning of the season, Arne Slot is trying his best to see if he can use the experienced players in the squad to win the League this season ahead of Arteta; while Arteta in the other hand despite having some setbacks due to injury will also like to improve his team’s performance in the coming weeks.
Now the EFL Cup is left for either Arsenal or Liverpool in my opinion, even though Tottenham is there, I don’t think the hungry Arsenal and Liverpool will allow them win the title ahead of them.