Manchester City 2-3 Tottenham Hotspur
Two second half goals from Harry Kane gave Spurs a memorable win over Manchester City and breathed life into the Premier League title race. The Sky Blues dominated for long periods but Kane’s best performance of the season handed Antonio Conte’s Whites a memorable victory and gave Liverpool fans a treat too.
Premier League: Manchester City vs Spurs rounded off Saturday’s top flight entertainment and it didn’t disappoint as one of Spurs’ new signings Dejan Kulusevski opened the scoring on four minutes, before Ilkay Gundogan deservedly pulled City level before the break. Kane restored Spurs’ lead but it looked like Riyad Mahrez had saved a point for City with a 90th minute penalty, before the England skipper headed home his 96th minute winner.
Pep Guardiola’s champions started the game six points clear at the top after Liverpool had beaten Norwich City in an earlier kick-off; and that’s where they finished, having played a game more than the Reds, while Spurs move up to seventh.
Highlights of the game
The Manchester City vs Spurs betting odds gave the distinct impression this was a nailed-on home win with a pre-match price of 1.25 for the Sky Blues to win, but Tottenham had different ideas. There were mixed views on Antonio Conte’s success in the January window with Tanguy Ndombele and Bryan Gil leaving the club, but one of the incomers made a name of himself with just four minutes on the clock. Harry Kane, wanted by City last summer played a brilliant ball around the Sky Blues’ defence and into the path of the sprinting Heung-Min Son. He was clean through on goal but he looked up and found Kulusevski in space and the new man had a simple task to fire home.
No-one here in the SBOTOP football team, nor anyone one else I guess, expected that… and City were rocked. And despite dominating play it took until the half hour mark before the hosts had a shot on target, though they came close on 21 minutes when Gundogan hit the post after Joao Cancelo and Raheem Sterling combined well. When the on-target shot came it produced the equaliser and Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris will not want to see the Manchester City vs Spurs highlights tonight! Sterling sent in a tame cross which the French stopper spilled into the path of Gundogan who made no mistake, slamming the ball into the net for 1-1.
So back to square one and there was only one way the game would go…no? Well the Sky Blues poured forward with 80 per cent of the ball in the opening 15 minutes of the second period and then, all of a sudden, they were behind again. The deadly duo of Son and Kane combined, the South Korean chipping the ball in for Kane who finished superbly into the top right corner.
City were stunned again and only a brilliant save from Ederson kept them in the game when Son found Kane once more. He was clean through, but the Brazilian keeper made himself big to keep the England man out. At the other end Lloris made a superb save to tip away a Gundogan strike but then, as the game swung from end to end, Spurs thought they’d broken through again. Kane steered the ball home but the Whites’ celebrations were cut short when VAR intervened to rule Kulusevski inches offside in the build up.
City pressed for the leveller, firing crosses in from all angles but the Spurs defence held firm, their three centre backs chucking themselves in the way of everything the Sky Blues could throw at them. But when Bernardo Silva fired a cross in on 90 minutes Romero went to ground and the ball struck his hand.
Cue VAR and the penalty was given. Mahrez stepped up and fired the spot kick high into the top right corner giving Lloris no chance. Could City grab all three points?
I should stop asking daft questions!
95 minutes gone, Kulusevski broke free and curled in the perfect ball for Kane to nod down and into the net. Conte and the Spurs bench, not surprisingly, went wild.
Key statistics
Spurs’ victory ended a run of ten home wins for Manchester City.
Kulusevski’s goal was the fastest Spurs have scored in their 25 Premier League trips away to the Sky Blues.
Gundogan loves playing against Spurs. This was his fifth goal against the Whites and only West Brom, also with five, have conceded as many at the hands of the German midfielder.
What’s next?
There’s more Premier League action to come on Sunday when the pick of the games is at Elland Road where a hostile reception awaits Manchester United when they face Leeds.
Then, on Wednesday, Spurs head up to Lancashire to take on Burnley. It’s a rescheduled fixture from November when snow saw the game at Turf Moor postponed and the Whites can expect a chilly reception when they return in midweek. The Clarets moved off the bottom of the table with a 3-0 win away to Brighton on Saturday and are fighting hard to start a climb out of the drop zone.
Manchester City have a week off before they visit Frank Lampard’s Everton who are just four points above the bottom three after losing to Southampton this weekend.
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