Mauricio Pochettino has warned Tottenham they cannot afford another false start to a season if they are to challenge Manchester City for the Premier League title next term.

Spurs’ 3-1 defeat to City on Saturday, coupled with Manchester United’s 1-0 loss against West Brom the following day, assured Pep Guardiola’s side of the Premier League crown they have claimed at a canter.

City’s win also brought to an end a 14-match unbeaten streak for Tottenham, who for the third season in a row have hit the peak of their powers in a new year.

Their fine run has been too late for Spurs to rival City, which Pochettino puts down to a slow start to the campaign which saw them win just two of their first five league games.

“We feel very disappointed because we lost to one of the best teams in Europe, and for sure the best team in England,” Pochettino said. “That's part of our ambition, how we are and how we're thinking now.

“We believe we’re capable. But it's not easy to be consistent through the whole season. The challenge for us in the next few years is to be consistent, to try to start the season better.

“Manchester City started the season really well - we started with a lot of problems. We were very unstable in the way we started the season.

“If we want to win and we think we're going to be competitive and challenge for big things we need to start from day one of pre-season in a different way.

“If you see how we start the last three seasons: always, with different problems, the season starts after four, five, six or 10 games before we start to compete at the level that we want.

“That's a thing to improve; we are going to be focused and try to start better than the previous season.”

Pochettino confirmed he will rotate his side for Tuesday’s trip to Brighton, with Lucas Moura in line to start after his cameo off the bench in the loss at Wembley.