City improved in the second half, with Joey Barton pulling one back and having a late penalty appeal, but Rob Styles turned it down and Spurs hung on to win 2-1 - their 1st away win in the Premiership this season.
"Walking down the tunnel at half-time I was pleased it was only 2-0," he said. "I think we were that poor and I've not seen that level of performance at SportCity this year.
"For whatever reason, we just didn't come out of the traps, we didn't compete and we allowed Tottenham to pass the ball.
"At half-time we changed formation, one or two personnel, and we gave a good account of ourselves in the second half and we were maybe unfortunate not to get something out of the game.
"In the Premiership, you can't give yourself that much to do. Our first-half performance was awful."