“The defeat is everything and I am the most responsible for it. We win together and we lose together, but I am responsible for the rotations and so I want to assume my responsibilities.
“The season has only just begun though – we must lift ourselves.”
Pione Sisto’s well-taken goal set the tone in the 22nd minute and Iago Aspas added a breakaway second nine minutes later. A third goal arrived less than two minutes after that, Jeremy Mathieu diverting Daniel Wass’ cross past Ter Stegen with Aspas lurking.
Gerard Pique’s header and Neymar’s penalty gave Barca hope before Ter Stegen’s error with 13 minutes to go effectively sealed their fate, even though Pique cut the deficit back to one again with three minutes left.
Ter Stegen admitted: “It’s clear it’s my fault and there is no point saying any more. If I hadn’t made that mistake we had a chance to win the game.”
The defeat is the first blemish on Guardiola’s copybook since taking the reins at City this summer and the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich gaffer insisted he will learn from the defeat.
Asked if he would need a reaction from his players, he said: “That is part of the game, it’s part of the job. We didn’t come to Spurs imagining we would lose, but we did.
“We changed many things in the beginning and that’s normal to the process. You cannot always win every game and sometimes it happens and helps us to improve.
“I’m here to do the job and to get better and better, to do that you need to analyse what you have and have not done well.
“In September, you cannot imagine that our team is already complete. I am new here, we arrived with enthusiasm because of the quality play we have done until now.
“We were in an amazing situation up until now, but we knew we would need to continue improving, even when we won four or five games in a row.
“We need more and more, we have to work more and that’s how it is in football. Whether we win or lose at the end of the season, we might still not be perfect.”