Pep Guardiola says Manchester City are not favourites for the Champions League because of the “unpredictability” of football, pointing to how vulnerable his team were to one attack in the 2-0 defeat to Chelsea at the weekend.

The Catalan did say he was proud his team still played their style, insisting they dominated all but 10 minutes of the match, and said losing that way is a “good lesson” for everyone at the club.

The champions had completely dominated the first half of their trip to Stamford Bridge on Saturday, only to suddenly get exposed by a quick break and N’Golo Kante goal, before David Luiz sealed the Chelsea win with a late header. Guardiola argued it showed why it’s wrong to talk of his side as favourites for Europe’s premier trophy.

“When the people say Champions League, Champions League, we are not favourites because of that reason,” the City boss said. “At that level, you need nothing to score a goal and they scored and that’s why it’s so unpredictable.

“But that level is this. The only thing we can try to ensure is play the way we do, with personality, try to do that and we did it.”

Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Show all 23 1 /23 Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Thibaut Courtois - 4 Horrendous mistake for the first goal, completely mistiming his punch. Was solid in every other part of his game but matches of this magnitude are often won and lost on the small details. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Branislav Ivanovic - 6 Terrible first half performance that included three terrible errors that, fortunately for Chelsea, went unpunished. Made up for that with a brilliant pass to find Hazard for the goal and was much better after half-time. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings John Terry - 7 Made one bad error when he got underneath a long ball to allow Aguero through on goal but again proved he is the best English defender out there. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Kurt Zouma - 8 Still has huge room for improvement but the 20-year-old has all the tools to become one of the very best in the world. Deserves to be keeping England's first-choice centre-back on the sidelines. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Cesar Azpilicueta - 5 Jesus Navas had the better of his compatriot all evening. Azpilicueta was beaten in a way Chelsea fans have not often seen. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Nemanja Matic - 8 Stepped up his game in the absence of Fabregas to put in a complete midfield performance. Truly great on and off the ball, the giant Serbian was the best player on the park. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Ramires - 7 Held his position well as the holding midfielder and only made the occasional burst forward, Ramires was very good but its hard to argue that the Blues missed the wizardry of Cesc Fabregas. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Willian - 5 Hassled and harried his way through the 90 minutes, Willian was excellent in the defensive and middle thirds of the field but produced little to nothing in areas where he could do damage. Set-pieces delivery was also poor. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Oscar - 6 Another who failed to produce in the final third, Oscar played deeper than he has done for the most part this season which blunted his effectiveness Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Eden Hazard - 6 Brilliant in the first 45, causing all sorts of problems for Bacary Sagna but was extremely quiet after the break as City closed off the space around the dangerous Belgian. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Loic Remy - 7 Was brilliant in the lone striker role, holding the ball up well to bring his team-mates into the game. Great movement to find space for the goal, it was a shame for Chelsea that the trio behind him starved the striker of service. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Joe Hart - 6 Nothing he could do about the goal and was hardly tested otherwise by the home side. Looked reasonably solid throughout, bar one dodgy kick. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Bacary Sagna - 6 Struggled in the first half against Hazard but grew into it as it went on, to snuff out the Hazard threat. Combined excellently with Jesus Navas. Lost Hazard for the goal. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Vincent Kompany - 7 Defender manfully, though he wasn't always the most comfrotable in possession. In truth, Chelsea didn't offer much threat. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Martin Demichelis - 7 Had an excellent match but went to sleep to allow Loic Remy to steal into yards of space for the goal. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Gael Clichy - 8 Didn't put a foot wrong on the left and never gave Willian the chance to do anything of note in the final third. Offered a good outlet going forward as well. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Fernandinho - 7 Was one of the best City performers with a display full of energy and purpose. Pushed the visitors forward, passed well and was not averse to stopping Chelsea by any means necessary. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Fernando - 7 Gave Matic as good as he got in midfield and provided the City defence with superb cover throughout the game. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Jesus Navas - 7 Gave Cesar Azpilicueta the hardest game he's played all season but for all the occasions he beat his opposite number he failed to deliver that telling ball. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings James Milner - 7 Barely troubled Ivanovic as an attacking force but you can't downplay his importance to the City cause as a worker and defender. Getty Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings David Silva - 7 Was not able to offer his usual craft when in possession as he was well marshalled by Matic and Ramires, but got an absolutely vital touch to turn Aguero's shot past Ivanovic. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Sergio Aguero - 5 Five games since returning from injury and the usually lethal striker is misfiring. Latched on to a Terry mistake to race through on goal for a chance that a pre-injury Aguero would have tucked away - he fired wide. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Frank Lampard - 5 The stage looked set for another Lampard goal against his former club but it was not to be. Given a great ovation at the end from his former supporters. Getty Images

Asked were his side the better team, Guardiola said: “Except ten minutes of the match but that can’t win and congratulations to Chelsea for the victory.

“But you can’t imagine what it feels like to be a manager to see my team at this stage and play the way we played. We were incredible. Better than last season from when we won here. The first half we had chances and we cannot expect to have a lot of chances against a team like Chelsea. We didn’t concede absolutely anything, maybe a few.

“We are the same team. We scored 100 goals last season and when we analyse the result, the result is easy to do. They won, congratulations, they got three points and we didn’t get anything but we don’t have any regrets. It’s so emotional for me and the day we lose, we lose in that way.

“You don’t have to tell me how competitive this league is. It’s you and your analysts that keep saying we are invincible, that we are perfect, how good we are and that in February we are going to win the league.

“You said that. All of you. Not the manager, not any player, not the club. What happened last season was because we were incredible, incredible.

“But after that, when everybody wants to beat us, being in the position that we are, playing a lot of games in the position that we have, in the way way we want to play, that’s much more important than sometimes even winning today.

“When you win something, that’s the most difficult thing. Doing what we have done in the Champions League, the Premier League, the Carabao Cup, every single thing is so difficult, there’s a game three days and that’s why I said many times, it doesn’t matter when we win 10, 12 or 13 games in a row that we want to win, we want to keep going, but when we lose in that way it’s a good example for our academy, for the generation coming through because even in the last minute we were pressing, trying to score a goal, it’s difficult of course because it’s a Champions League-level team, incredible manager with incredible players in attack, in defence and Jorginho, [N’Golo] Kante, [Mateo] Kovacic, back four well organised, it’s well organised and it was so difficult.

“That’s why I am so happy.”

Manchester City slipped to their first loss of the season (Getty)

Guardiola did not want to get into the debate over whether City might have won with Sergio Aguero or Kevin De Bruyne playing, as he said they have maintained their form despite missing the Belgian for the whole season so far, while suffering other injuries.

“Nobody knows. If someone had come here and told me that we’d win with Sergio or Kevin De Bruyne then congratulations because I don’t know.

“Yeah [we have injuries], but we did it so far and so I’m not here to complain about injuries because I said this and gave this ridiculous situation and tried to analyse our game, because the guys who are not here for many reasons and I’m not saying that the guys who were here were not good. It’s completely the opposite, they were outstanding.

“I said many times that after you win a game you have to be calm and all the time you win a game, it’s just three points and we analyse it the way we do and now we have to recover now, eat and prepare properly, play in the Champions League and win the next game.