LUTON, England—Standing in the rain on the sideline of the tiniest stadium he will visit all season, Pep Guardiola was losing his mind. The Manchester City manager gesticulated wildly, clapped sarcastically, and hollered at the officials, but nothing seemed to be going right.
His lavishly assembled team was proving incapable of getting past Luton Town, the squad with the smallest payroll in the English Premier League. Even once City scraped together a comeback to win 2-1, the defending champions looked far from their dominant selves.
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