Manchester City's Premier League title defence got off to a nightmare start as they were beaten 1-0 by Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Pep Guardiola was forced to play a number of fringe players in North London due to a large proportion of his first-team only recently returning from holidays after international duty, and other than a bright opening 15 minutes, the Citizens were very much second best on Sunday afternoon.

Heung-Min Son's second-half goal, a left-footed strike from outside of the box that perhaps would have been saved by Ederson if not for a poor attempt at a block from Ruben Dias, was enough to separate the two sides and ensure that City endured another defeat without a goal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Although there were a number of poor performances from those in sky blue, Benjamin Mendy's display at left-back once again emphasised that he should not be starting for Manchester City anymore.

As per SofaScore, the former Monaco man would earn a poor 6.5 rating for his display against Nuno Espirito Santo's side, which was the joint-worst of any outfield City player on Sunday afternoon.

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During his time on the pitch, the French defender would be dribbled past on four occasions, which was the most of any defender on the pitch, and more than every other City defender combined.

For comparison, Joao Cancelo on the right-hand side would earn an impressive 7.7 rating despite the defeat, and wasn't dribbled past once, which again emphasises just how poor Mendy is at defending.

Lucas Moura gave the 27-year-old a torrid time and ensured that he couldn't get forward nearly as much as he normally does, whilst his crosses were also nowhere near their usual standard, as just one out of the eight he attempted during the game was accurate.

The Frenchman would also win just four out 14 duels during the game, resulting in a less than impressive 29% success rate, so it was no surprise to see him replaced by Oleksandr Zinchenko with just over 10 minutes left.

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If City have title aspirations this season then they cannot risk playing Mendy in these sorts of fixtures, as he is clearly a defensive liability.

And, in other news... Man City dealt decisive transfer blow with "world-class" beast, Pep surely fuming