Bournemouth, Nov 3 (IANS): Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has said his side struggled to match Bournemouth's intensity in Saturday's 2-1 defeat as he believes his players weren’t as sharp as their opponents at the Vitality Stadium.

Goals from Antoine Semenyo and Evanilson consigned Guardiola’s side to a first loss in 33 outings in the top-flight, a run stretching back to 6 December 2023.

The result also signalled the end of the 100 percent record in English top tier history, with City victorious in their previous 14 meetings with Bournemouth at this level.

"We couldn’t match up to the intensity. All the situations with the long balls, we couldn’t win it. And when you don’t win these types of balls to Semenyo and others, our central defenders and strikers have to defend deeper," Guardiola said in a post match presser.

"We struggled to make our game, but especially for that. In the game, for many reasons, they were higher than us. We have players with rhythm and the other players have a lack of rhythm because we could not train due to injuries. But we knew it.

"Ruben’s injury is muscular and will be out until the international break. And John has a fasciitis splinter in the feet and today he was not ready. Manu and Nathan made an incredible effort to be there in a demanding game.

He also revealed that Kyle Walker returned to the starting line-up after one training session following three weeks out injured. "Kyle has gone 18 or 19 days and only one training session with us and today he was there. This is the position we have, we try to have minutes to arrive fresh here. We could not handle. They were another pace and we could not handle it," Guardiola said.

Saturday's loss also means City have dropped to second in the Premier League, trailing leaders Liverpool by two points.