Manchester City end poor week on a high at Tottenham's expense
As Pep Guardiola sought to correct Manchester City’s poor run, Tottenham are the last opponent he’ll have wanted to face in Saturday’s late kick off. While City landed a 4-1 win over Spurs at the Etihad Stadium earlier in the season, the North London side had won their last six Premier League outings and now need just eight points to secure a top-4 finish. City, meanwhile, had lost their last three competitive matches prior to Saturday’s meeting, crashing out of the Champions League at Liverpool’s expense and forfeiting a two-goal lead against neighbours Manchester United last weekend when the title was within their grasp.
Guardiola has only once lost four successive matches as a manager, that coming during his time as Bayern boss back in 2015, but his side came close to drawing early blood when Leroy Sane struck the post inside the opening five minutes. Tottenham had the fatigued look of a team that had been run ragged by a rampant Liverpool in midweek in the opening exchanges and were almost made to pay for their rustiness a second and third time as Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne also came close as City pegged their Premier League counterparts back early on.
Spurs adopted a defensive approach from the off, but it was their decision to press forward that was their undoing. With the backline pushed upfield, Vincent Kompany lofted onto a long ball upfield for Gabriel Jesus to latch onto, which the Brazilian finished with aplomb. The champions elect were two goals to the good just three minutes later as Ilkay Gundogan made no mistake from the penalty spot after Hugo Lloris had felled Raheem Sterling.
City seemed to take their foot off the gas after opening up a two-goal lead and it presented Spurs with a chance to force their way back into the match, which they grabbed with both hands. Christian Eriksen has been in flying form of late and halved the deficit at Wembley with a close-range finish past Ederson with five minutes of the first half remaining.
After the restart, Spurs slowly began to exert their dominance as City started to tire, with their midweek exertions beginning to take their toll on the visitors, but it as the away side who had the best chance to score the crucial fourth goal as Jesus was again put through on goal, only to fluff his lines when one on one with Lloris. A rejuvenated Spurs were made to pay for their inability to put City to the sword, however, as Sterling made no mistake from close range to wrap up the three points.
A deflated Spurs team did little to suggest they could force their way back into the game once Sterling bagged the decisive goal. However, the opening 25 minute capitulation proved to be the hosts downfall. Spurs gave City too much respect in the opening exchanges and that allowed the champions elect the opportunity to dominate early on and as they grew in confidence, it was only a matter of time before they took the initiative. However, it wasn’t until Spurs began to press high that City broke the deadlock and after adding a second, it was an uphill struggle for Spurs.
That being said, this isn’t the be all and end all for Pochettino’s side. They’ve lost just two league games since December now, both of which came against City, and they remain in the hunt for a Champions League finish and a FA Cup final berth as they gear up for their semi-final meeting with Manchester United next week.
