'Is Trafford really top drawer?' - Guardiola's keeper conundrum

"It's happened again, it's happened again, Manchester City, it's happened again."

That was the chant bellowed from the Etihad Stadium's away end at full-time after City were again humbled at home by Tottenham Hotspur.

Spurs were scintillating on their visit here last November and inflicted a 4-0 thrashing, but they were given a helping hand on this occasion and it was one they gleefully accepted.

This time it was 2-0. The visiting Spurs contingent, who have suffered as targets of the "it's happened again" jibe in the past, made sure to enjoy the moment.

Deploying a high defensive line cost Pep Guardiola's City side the opening goal, while goalkeeper James Trafford did not cover himself in glory for the second in an overall jittery performance on his home debut.

Ederson has been City's undisputed number one for eight years, but the Brazilian watched on from the bench after missing the Wolves game through illness last weekend amid heavy links with a move to Turkish giants Galatasaray.

What is clear is that Guardiola has a big long-term decision to make about the goalkeeper role.

"James made a good first game and I decided to continue [with him]," said Guardiola, explaining Trafford's selection.

"The keeper is a special position, of course, to have more consistency in the goal.

"When I take decisions in the first part of the season for all the players who play one or two games, everyone thinks 'OK this is the starting line-up, these are the players who are going to play', but with these amount of games, everyone will play.

"It was just today I decided that."

Trafford was in celebratory mood earlier in the week when he collected the PFA's Championship player of the year award at the Opera House in Manchester city centre, reward for his performances in the second tier for Burnley.

The 22-year-old kept 29 clean sheets in the league last season for the Clarets, and after joining City he was quickly on song, as Guardiola pointed out, in the opening win at Wolves.

But this was a different story, a difficult first showing in a City shirt at Etihad Stadium.

Trafford came through the City ranks and rejoined the club for £27m from Burnley this summer having not made a senior appearance in his first spell.

He will have been dreaming of playing Premier League football for City at the Etihad, but it turned into an uncomfortable afternoon, Trafford slipping away from centre stage at the final whistle with songs from joyful Spurs fans ringing in his ears.

Guardiola has turned to youth in his rebuild.

Saturday's team, with an average age of 24 years and 326 days, was the youngest starting XI named by the Spaniard in the Premier League and they have plenty to learn.

Tottenham's Richarlison pressed relentlessly all game and forced Trafford into conceding a corner, while the keeper was lucky not to be dismissed for a collision on the edge of the box with Spurs winger Mohammed Kudus.

And at 1-0 behind, with the crowd beginning to get anxious, those shaky moments then turned into a calamity as Trafford played a loose pass inside the area to Ruben Dias, who failed to control, and Joao Palhinha eventually smashed in.

City failed to recover, slipping to defeat in their first home game of the campaign.

"City were well beaten today," former Premier League striker Chris Sutton said on BBC Radio 5 Live. "I've got to say I'm not sure about the goalkeeper situation.

"Is James Trafford really top drawer? If it's a choice between Trafford and Ederson, I'm going with Ederson.

"It was poor for the goal, a weak pass into Dias, not even passing on to the right side, and that absolutely killed them with Spurs going in 2-0 at half-time."

Paris St-Germain's Gianluigi Donnarumma is rumoured to be of interest to City and sources have not totally ruled out a move for the Italian, but it would need Ederson to move on.

Guardiola, though, now has a decision to make as to whether he sticks with Trafford, brings Ederson back into the fold, or sells the Brazilian and signs Donnarumma.

The manager seems unsure himself, having said before the start of the season that Ederson was his number one, but then on Friday saying he will pick "who trains good".

Trafford was given the nod, but the decision raises more questions than answers.

Similar to counterpart Ruben Amorim across the city, the managers of both Manchester clubs each have a goalkeeping conundrum to deal with if they are to claw their way back to the top.

"There was a lot of talk after week one that this Man City team were back," former Everton midfielder Leon Osman said on BBC Radio 5 Live. "I think this lets everybody take a step back and reassess that.

"They were way off the level that Spurs were at today."