Burnley’s Irish defender Stephen Ward (right), vies with Arsenal’s English midfielder Theo Walcott during the English Premier League football match between Burnley and Arsenal at Turf Moor in Burnley, north west England on Oct 2. (AFP)

LONDON, Oct 2, (Agencies): Manchester City suffered their first defeat under manager Pep Guardiola as Tottenham Hotspur underlined their Premier League title credentials with a 2-0 win at White Hart Lane on Sunday.

Meanwhile reigning champions Leicester City were held to a goalless draw by Southampton while Manchester United endured a frustrating 1-1 draw at home to Stoke City.

An Aleksandar Kolarov own goal and a Dele Alli strike gave Spurs victory and they could even afford for Erik Lamela to squander a second-half penalty.

The result lifted Spurs to second, a point below City.

It was Guardiola’s first defeat in 12 games as City manager and followed a mid-week 3-3 draw at Celtic in the Champions League that ended his side’s perfect start to the season.

At Old Trafford, it looked as if substitute Anthony Martial’s 69th-minute goal would give United victory over a Stoke side who started the day bottom of the table.

But a mistake by United goalkeeper David de Gea led to Joe Allen’s equaliser eight minutes from time, the point gained seeing Stoke leapfrog Sunderland.

United wasted numerous chances, with world-record signing Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic among the offenders as Stoke goalkeeper Lee Grant, on loan from Derby County, made several fine saves.

“This is the best performance all season and could have been one of these fat results in the Premier League, it could have been 5-0 or 6-0,” United manager Jose Mourinho told BT Sport.

“We had big chances, with amazing saves and big misses.”

The Portuguese boss added: “We will play worse and win games...We had 90 minutes of control, we had 90 minutes of ambition.”

Meanwhile, Stoke manager Mark Hughes said: “I’m really pleased with the performance.

“We had a game plan and we executed it to the letter.”

Turning to Grant’s display, former United striker Hughes said: “He’s a good ‘keeper, a great character and we are pleased he is with us.”

Arsenal scored with virtually the last touch of the game to beat Burnley 1-0 and extend its winning run in the Premier League to five games on Sunday.

After a short corner in the second minute of injury time, Theo Walcott flicked on a cross and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain appeared to turn the ball in at the far post — via the unintentional hand of teammate Laurent Koscielny just in front of him.

It was a memorable way for Arsene Wenger to mark his 20th anniversary as Arsenal manager. His team is in third place, two points behind leader Manchester City.

Despite being on the back foot for most of the game and defending deeply, Burnley almost took the lead when Michael Keane headed a corner against the crossbar in the 75th minute.

Alexis Sanchez shot wide with Arsenal’s best two chances before the visitors’ scrambled winner.

Leicester’s spluttering defence of the Premier League title suffered another blow after they were held to a 0-0 draw by Southampton at the King Power Stadium on Sunday.

Retaining the title always looked like a bridge too far for Claudio Ranieri’s side, but the autumn leaves have hardly started falling from the trees before the Foxes appear to have fallen out of contention.

This was another subdued performance from the champions, who lacked the ferocious work rate that carried them to the title, and they have now won only two of their seven league games this term.

Leicester are already marooned in mid-table, 10 points behind leaders Manchester City, and challenging for a top four finish might be the limit of their ambitions as reality bites after an incredible 12 months.

At least Europe still offers the chance for more miracles and Leicester defeated Porto in midweek to secure a second successive victory in their maiden Champions League campaign.

Leicester had already suffered three league defeats this season – as many as they lost in the entirety of last season’s fairytale campaign  –  and Southampton looked the more confident side as a result.

Saints boss Claude Puel rested a host of key players for Thursday’s trip to Israel for a goalless draw against Hapoel Be’er-Sheeva in the Europa League and the decision to keep his stars fresh was rewarded with a lively display. England interim manager Gareth Southgate was in the stands before announcing his first squad for the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers against Malta and Slovenia.

Southgate might have been checking on Charlie Austin and the in-form Southampton striker had an early chance with a header that was directed too close to Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.

Austin, who had five goals in his previous four appearances, was off target with another headed effort from a Dusan Tadic cross.

But Austin came much closer moments later when he peeled away from Christian Fuchs with a clever run and tried an ambitious shot from an acute angle that beat Schmeichel, only to cannon to safety off the far post.

Jamie Vardy should have put Leicester ahead after a typically frenetic piece of harrying from the England striker forced a weak backpass from Virgil van Dijk.

Vardy seized on the loose ball but as he tried to round Southampton goalkeeper Fraser Forster, Oriol Romeu got back to block his shot before throwing his body in the way of Islam Slimani’s effort from the rebound.