Pep Guardiola claims Manchester City’s title defence began to unravel the moment they saw a late winner against Tottenham ruled out by VAR.

Gabriel Jesus saw an injury time goal disallowed against Spurs in August after replays showed Aymeric Laporte had handled in the build-up.

It saw City drop two early points in their bid to win a hat-trick of Premier League titles, handing Liverpool an advantage they have never looked back from.

After watching his side secure a 3-1 win against Leicester to move within 11 points of Jurgen Klopp’s leaders, Guardiola hailed his side’s best performance since that Spurs game, while also pinpointing a turning point of the campaign.

“In 90 minutes I would say yes (it was our best performance),” he said. ”Tottenham was quite similar, I’d say even better. But we drew, which was not good.

“Against Tottenham we create, I don’t know how many, and could not win for the incredible disallowed goal in the last minute and that started a bit of our trouble and problems.

“When we control the way we did today I think we are coming back. The way we pressed and our game was good.“

Jamie Vardy gave Leicester the lead before Riyad Mahrez equalised and Ilkay Gundogan’s put City ahead from the penalty spot by half time.

Gabriel Jesus made it 3-1 in the second half.

Guardiola added: “It was an incredible performance without the ball, with the ball. Defending incredibly high.

“We were at a high, high level. I’m very pleased.

“We tried to play today to convince the players this is the team we want to be. It doesn’t matter if we win or lose, but that’s what we want to be.

“Against a team like Leicester we scored three goals and could have scored a lot more. That says a lot about the quality and mentality of the team.

“During the last two seasons we played a lot in the way we played today. Hopefully I wish in the future we can continue in this level.”

Guardiola added there is no shame in trailing Liverpool by so many points.

“We have one less point than Madrid and Barcelona, the teams that are leading the Spanish league,” he said. “The problem is we have one team with 17 games, 16 wins and one draw. Against that it’s hats off, congratulate them.

“I know what happens after two seasons, teams going down. We lose games, lose points, but we never lose our game. So when we drop points, always we were there. Incredible personality.”