City had laboured for much of the game but the finishing of Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko made the difference.

"It was a difficult moment," the manager said. "We had a lot of important players injured and today I saw the same spirit from the players that I saw last year.

"In the first half we played well. Tottenham, I didn't feel, had chances apart from a couple of set pieces. We need to improve there. But after they scored first I thought we played fantastic."