Mancashter City (Home) 01.02.2026

Going with a back three due to the absence of the injured Micky van de Ven and Kevin Danso, the ever-growing injury list hit Spurs hard, with eleven players unavailable.  With City playing without anyone on their right side of attack, Tottenham’s back three of Dragusin, Romero and Palhinha were going to have to shuffle across to their right or watch for players breaking from deep on the other side of the pitch.

Within two minutes, Semenyo was running at Palhinha and poked a shot away early through Joao’s legs when it looked like he might have come inside, as he did in his last game for Bournemouth against us.  This time Vicario got down to it and saved to his left, having time to get up and claim the ball before anyone could capitalise.  City’s 4-4-2 was giving them the upper hand in midfield, although the referee allowing a clear foul by Kushanov on Solanke with two hands in his back to go unpunished wasn’t helping Tottenham hold onto the ball.

Bissouma lost possession the ball in the centre circle, Silva touched it forward for Haaland, who moved it on to Cherki 30 yards from goal.  He went forward with the ball until he got to the 18-yard line to the right of the goal, from where he shot with the ball taking a slight flick off Radu’s left boot, but going across Vic, it found his bottom right corner of the net to put Spurs behind.  In trying to get back, Bissouma tumbled Haaland over which the ref allowed play to go on but went back to book Yves after the goal.  It was a goal that caught Spurs out in transition and going behind again in the League made it an uphill task to get anything from the match.

In the 18th minute, a long ball forward by City caught Dragusin and Romero underneath the ball and Haaland split the two getting onto it at the edge of the box, with Vicario coming out before retreating to the six yard line, which left him vulnerable to the lob, but the Norwegian striker got too much on the ball and it dropped onto the roof of the net much to Spurs fans’ relief.

A sliding tackle 25 yards from the Spurs goal by Xavi Simons won the ball and Spurs moved forward through Solanke and Kolo Muani and Archie Gray got it on the halfway line.  Moving it into the City half, he looked to slide a pass through to Solanke, but Khusanov was across to get a block in to deny him possession.  When Xavi won the ball in City’s right hand corner, he looked to find Gallagher 20 yards out, but Khusanov’s lunge was late this time and he picked up a yellow card.  Simons took the free-kick but hit the wall and the ball looped up to allow Donnarumma to claim the ball high above the Spurs men in the box.

Cherki was twisting and turning as he took the ball into the box and then along the dead-ball line as City went into attack, going past Romero easily, then shopping the ball back inside Dragusin’s sliding block, but his shot from a narrow angle was touched wide with a fantastic reflex save by Vicario. Not that the officials noticed the touch he got on it with his right hand, giving a goal-kick and not a corner.  Cherki went down for the second time in the match and he looked as though he was going to be subbed by Reijnders in the 25th minute, but he managed to carry on.

When Connor Gallagher went for a bouncing ball in midfield, Rodri won the ball with his studs catching the new Spurs signing above the knee, but the referee regarded this as not worthy of a free-kick, let alone a booking.  It would be fair to assume that if it had been Romero, the outcome would have been different.  Two minutes later, Xavi was running through into the City half, having been knocked twice by City players, with Rodri the second and the Spaniard then kicking out at Gray after the whistle blew.  The referee appeared to be quite lenient towards the City players, with their players being given free-kicks every time they went down.

Romero won the ball well, anticipating the through pass, allowing Spurs to mount an attack, with Kolo Muani getting into the left side of the box onto Xavi’s pass.  He fed it back to Simons, who tried to find a shooting angle, but with players in front of him and nobody to lay the ball off to, he was dispossessed by two City players, allowing them to go on the front foot.  It was played out to Semenyo on their left wing, but he dived as Palhinha came in and a goal-kick was given.  Quite why he didn’t get a yellow, I don’t know.  The ref didn’t hesitate to book Xavi when he slid in on Rodri, getting there a little late, but keeping his feet down.

The referee then body-checked Cherki as he ran behind him but that was one of the few good things Jones did in the match.  After a long phase of possession for the opposition, Spurs got the ball down in their right hand corner.  Xavi played it back to Dragusin and with few options ahead of him, he only found Silva, who passed forward to Cherki on the edge of the box and although his control was poor, he managed to stretch on the slide to knock it square to Semenyo, who, from the penalty spot, lifted it over Vicario as he came out to close him down.  A minute before the 45 were up was a crushing time to concede a second goal, but once more, it was the lack of movement that cost Tottenham the possession and then the goal.

Amazingly,  Rodri got a yellow card in added time, when Xavi ran past him and he pulled the Dutchman back with a hand around his middle.  It gave Tottenham a free-kick in a central position 20 yards out.   Again, Xavi took it beating the wall, but straight at Donnarumma without a lot of power.

The traditional booing from the South Stand greeted the half-time whistle and even a visit from the great Jan Vertonghen seemed to fail to lift spirits during the half-time break.  Pape Matar Sarr appeared for the start of the second half, replacing Cristian Romero in a change that saw Tottenham adopting a more accustomed 4-4-2 set-up.

There was soon another yellow, this time for Solanke who pulled Khusanov to the ground with a hand on his neck as they challenged for a long ball.  A fine pass out to the left by Archie Gray found Destiny and his low pull-back into he box was half-cleared to Connor Gallagher, but it was a high bounce that meant he couldn’t keep his shot down and it flew into the South Stand.

Tottenham worked the ball out from Vicario, with Gray and Kolo Muani exchanging passes on the right giving the youngster the opportunity to break forward.  His cross was headed away by Khusanov, but not far, being picked up by Simons, who fed it nicely into the path of Udogie coming into the box to the left.  The Italian let go a thunderous shot that Donnarumma did very well to turn over the bar for a corner.  The corner tactic of hitting it long to the far post picked out Dragusin, but his header back across the goalmouth was blocked for a throw-in.

Spurs kept the ball well from the Romanian’s throw and worked it to the left side.  Xavi played a deft pass into Dominic in the box with the outside of his right boot and Solanke switched the ball onto his right foot with a neat little back-heel and passed the ball into the neat past Donnarumma from eight yards out.   VAR looked at it as they always do and it took a while as they looked for offside, as they announced on the big screen, but it transpired that they were also looking for a foul on Guehi by Solanke as he stroked the ball into the net, but eventually, it was given.   Nobody was quite sure if it was Dom’s goal or an own goal.

After another long Dragusin throw, City looked to break but when the ball was played in to the edge of the box, it was Xavi Simons who was the player to win it.  For some reason, Guardiola was losing his cool and his ranting at the fourth official brought him a yellow card in the 57th minute. His moaning influenced Jones a minute later when he hadn’t given a foul, but changed his mind after Pep’s antics on the touch-line.

Guehi headed wide as he fell back after Semenyo had blocked off Bissouma from a corner, as a chance went begging for City.  Palhinha made a crunching tackle on Ait-Nouri and set off an attack that saw Kolo Muani take on Nunes in the box to win a corner.  All this had gone on with Ait-Nouri laying on the ground and the referee sauntered up the pitch to see him after the corner was given and the player then got up without needing treatment.  It is these lengthy stoppages that need to be cut out of the game, as they annoy the fans and no doubt the players too.

As Xavi darted between two City players, he was knocked off balance, with the ref putting the whistle to his mouth and plan waving play on.  It is frustrating when soft free-kicks are given one way but not ours.

Xavi played a lovely ball into the near post, but Solanke was just unable to reach it.  Palhinha was winning tackles regularly and one on Semenyo really got the crowd going.  Tel and Odobert replaced Bissouma and Kolo Muani while Cherki was getting more ‘treatment’ as Guardiola bought some time to react to the Spurs changes.  Finally, Cherki went off with Reijnders taking his place, while Gonzalez was on for the subbed Ait-Nouri.

Gallagher was battling well to win possession in midfield and when he pressed 25 yards from goal, winning the ball from Gonzalez and O’Reilly, he found space on the right and his ball into the box was behind Solanke.  However, he threw up a heel behind him to perform a scorpion kick that sent the ball arcing over Donnarumma and into the net.  The crowd exploded with this goal from a quick piece of thinking by Dom and every replay drew “Oohs” and “Aaahs” from the Tottenham sections.  Even though the keeper got fingers to it, he couldn’t keep it out and Solanke’s celebration was almost as if he couldn’t believe it.  Gallagher celebrated by smashing one of the balls on cones into the West Stand and he apologised straight away to the fan on the receiving end.

City were rocking as Xavi went through and lid the ball to his right to Wilson in the box.  He drove a shot towards the far post that Donnarumma kept out with his right boot, as the Spurs crowd finally got behind the team.  A move down the left ended with Mathys setting up Xavi with a shot from the corner of the box that the keeper was a full stretch to produce a fine save to push over the bar after it came off Silva’s back.

Archie Gray tried to jink his way past three players in the box but was eventually crowded out, then City moved upfield and Silva’s cross was headed wide by Reijnders from a good position, perhaps put off as Sarr’s jump in front of him just failed to reach the Ball and the City midfielder might not have expected it to reach him.

A melee in front of the Tottenham goal saw Guehi’s shot blocked by Sarr as the Spurs man slid in and then sat in front of the ball while others were kicking at it and eventually Haaland scooped it up over the bar taking a touch off the grounded Pape.  City appealed for handball but if it did hit Pape’s arm, it was one supporting him as he sat goal-side of the ball.

With Haaland heading down a cross, Reijnders threw himself at the ball and his header went a foot wide of Vicario’s right-hand post.  It was a nervy moment as Spurs had been defending much better this half.  The closing down high up the pitch was also paying off, as Simons took the ball off Nunes 25 yards out on or left, running it into the box and pulling the ball across into the middle, where Guehi did just enough to prevent Odobert getting to the ball.

Spurs were dropping a bit deeper and Gallagher did well to throw himself in the Spurs area to head the ball out for a corner as looked like it would drop for a corner.  When it came in, Haaland was whingeing for a penalty as Dragusin got close to him in the area, but the review for a spot-kick was rejected.  Dom was having treatment and had to be replaced by Jun’ai Byfield, who went into midfield.

Quite why we get penalised for fouls when other teams escape it, I am at a loss to explain.  Rodri clearly smacked into Gallagher’s shin with a high foot and having already been booked, he should have seen red.  For the City midfielder to complain after the match that the ref wasn’t fair for allowing Dom’s first goal, he was correct in one respect, as the ref should have sent him off, especially as he then took Wilson down as he went past him.

Nine added minutes were shown by the fourth official and Guardiola took Rodri off indicating that he knew he was close to getting dismissed.  Gonzalez cynically tripped Odobert as he went past him and the ref pulled out a yellow card.

It was a spirited comeback from Spurs that I didn’t really see happening at half-time and for the point to be secured by Dom’s scorpion kick was amazing.  After chants of derision, the crowd did get behind the team in the second half, but it is still a mystery why they can only  play one decent half of football and why they only start to play when they go behind.  A lot of people were saying this was the last chance saloon for Frank, but he loves to fight another day.  February always looked a tough month on paper, so to continue the hold we have over City and get a point was a bonus considering the way we have been playing in the league.

It is also mystifying as to how we get so few decisions go our way.  City fans will say that the first Solanke goal should have been disallowed, but would they admit that Rodri should have been sent off if not booked three times ?  No, of course they wouldn’t, but it is somehow different that his Balon D’Or reputation buys him credit with referees that isn’t given to World Cup winner Romero.  It is quite annoying too that Semenyo threw himself to the floor in the box and wasn’t booked for it and the amount of dissent and confrontation from the City players went overlooked, while Guardiola picked up his trademark yellow for nagging the fourth official.

A good point and a valuable one, but the pressure is still on the team and on Frank with a win needed to kick-start the team and Frank’s tenure.

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