Villas-Boas was scathing in his post-match assessment of Tottenham's heaviest Premier League defeat in almost two decades as City ran riot thanks to two-goal salvos from Jesus Navas and Sergio Aguero, a Sandro own goal and an Alvaro Negredo effort.
While Villas-Boas wasted little time slamming an "extremely poor" team performance, the Tottenham manager is also looking at the bigger picture.
Just eight points separate leaders Arsenal from Tottenham in ninth after back-to-back defeats, with champions Manchester United next up in the league for Villas-Boas' men after a UEFA Europa League trip to Tromso.
"Two defeats in a row, the reality is that league table wise we are in touch with teams close to our objectives," Villas-Boas said.
"We haven't lost a lot in terms of our position in the league, with one result everything can change again.
"We have to get back to work, focus on the mistakes and work on them.
"No, the reality is for us to come back we needed to score and we never had a proper chance to score. To lose 6-0 is extremely embarrassing."
Emmanuel Adebayor made his first appearance of the season in the defeat at his former club City, the striker's lack of first-team action a result of slipping down the pecking order at Tottenham.
Villas-Boas added: "He (Adebayor) was in the fold, the others were scoring, were performing, he's been training hard and gives us more attacking options.
"We will look at integrating two strikers, if it’s the way forward for us to score. Depends on how quickly we can re-integrate into the 4-4-2."
