MANCHESTER CITY  3  (1)  TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR  0  (0) 
Date : –  13th February 2021 Kick off : –  17.30
Competition : –   Premier League Venue : –  City of Manchester Stadium
Crowd : –  0,000
Referee : –  Paul Tierney (Lancashire) Linesmen : – Mr. Lee Betts; Mr. Ian Hussin
Fourth official : –  Craig Pawson
VAR official : –  Peter Bankes VAR Assistant : – Neil Davies
Weather : –  Freezing cold, light snow
Spurs kicked off the first half attacking the North (Family) Stand end
Playing time : –   90 + 6 minutes

 

MANCHESTER CITY TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
GOAL-SCORERS
    Rodri  (p)  22m 26s  
    Gundogan  49m 08s  
    Gundogan  65m 15s  
CARDS
  Silva  (foul on Davies)  29     Lamela  (foul on Cancelo)  65
      Dier  (foul on Jesus)  77
      Davies  (foul on Mahrez)  90+2

 

MANCHESTER CITY TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
31.   EDERSON 1.   Hugo LLORIS (c)
     
27.   Joao CANCELO 25.   Japhet TANGANGA
5.   John STONES 6.   Davinson SANCHEZ
14.   Aymeric LAPORTE 15.   Eric DIER 
11.   Oleksander ZINCHENKO 33.   Ben DAVIES 
     
20.   Bernardo SILVA  5.   Pierre-Emile HOJBJERG
16.   RODRI  (p)  28.   Tanguy NDOMBELE  ( 20.   DELE Alli  64)
8.   Ilkay GUNDOGAN      ( 20.   Fernando TORRES  69)    
11.   Erik LAMELA   (  9.    Gareth BALE  72)
47.   Ben FODEN 27.   Lucas MOURA  ( 17.    Moussa SISSOKO  46)
9.   Gabriel JESUS  ( 26.   Riyad MAHREZ  79) 7.   Heung-Min SON
7.   Raheem STERLING  (c)    
10.   Harry KANE
Substitutes Substitutes
13.   Zack STEFFEN 12.   Joe HART
2.   Kyle WALKER 2.   Matt DOHERTY
3.   Ruben DIAS 4.   Toby ALDERWEIRELD
22.   Benjamin MENDY 23.   Steven BERGWIJN
50.   Eric GARCIA 8.   Harry WINKS
69.   Tommy DOYLE 45.   Carlos VINICIUS
10.   Sergio AGUERO    

 

Manager : –  Pep Guardiola Manager : –  Jose Mourinho
Kit Supplier : –  Nike Kit Supplier : –  Nike
Shirt Sponsor : –  Etihad Airways Shirt Sponsor : –  AIA
Shirt Sleeve Sponsor : –  Nexen Tires Shirt Sponsor : –  Cinch
Colours : –
Colours : –
Images of kits courtesy of the marvellous Colours of Football website

 

MATCH REPORT

Manchester City steam-rollered on to their inevitable march to the Premier League title with a 16th win in all competitions since we beat them at home back in November.  A lot has changed since then for both sides and Spurs find themselves stuck down in ninth place after their 0-3 defeat, having had little prospect of getting much out of this game.

With a number of changes from the 4-5 defeat at Everton in midweek, as City also shuffled their pack, mainly because of some injuries, although Walker’s place on the bench was tactical.  After some early sparring, with City having most of the possession, Gabriel Jesus had a shot that was blocked by Dier and when the rebound was struck at goal, Sanchez had got in front of him to take the brunt of his second effort. Tottenham’s first shot came when Kane was fouled and then curled a free-kick around then right hand side of the wall to strike the top of the post with Ederson struggling to get there. City were  looking to get down the wings against Davies and Tanganga, but their passing was a little slack and that was why some of their moves in the first 20 minutes broke down. While City looked to wide positions, Spurs were very narrow, so when the ball was moved down the middle, that was where most of the players were and that left little space to play in.

Gundogan made a run into the left side of the box and Hojbjerg took his ankles away as the German mis-controlled the ball. With so many City players failing from the spot, Rodri took the spot-kick and although Lloris went down to his right and got a good hand to it, the ball came off it and into the roof of the net. So, halfway through the first half, the home side were ahead.

The problem Tottenham had … well one of them anyway … was that when the ball was trying to be played out of defence, there wasn’t a man open to play it to and when the ball did get up top, City out-numbered our players by a large margin. Sanchez blocked a shot from Silva and apart from a hopeful shout for a penalty when the ball was blasted against Davies, not much happened after the goal. A foul on Lamela was allowed to go by referee Tierney and then a foul was given for a lesser offence by Lamela on Jesus. The war of words continued and the official called Lloris over to tell Erik “to leave it, he’s not worth it”. A couple of minutes before half-time, Sterling got around Ben Davies and pulled the ball back to Jesus, but Sanchez blocked it well and then it came to the City striker again, but he blazed it over the bar.

As the second half began, Moussa Sissoko replaced Luca Moura, which freed Tanguy Ndombele to go a bit further forward. City had been closing Spurs down very quickly in the first half and when they got past them, City were happy to make cheap fouls to stop any progress. The pressure on the ball also made Spurs play hurried passes forward … mainly to a light blue shirt.

Raheem Sterling made a long run from right to left across the face of the penalty area and while Foden got involved, it was Sterling’s pass inside the box that picked out Gundogan’s untracked run (he ran in behind Sissoko) and he poked a shot at goal with Lloris not set, going in at the near post to make it 2-0.  It was a soft goal to conceded and within five minutes of the restart, it would have been the aim to keep things tight for fifteen minutes and then try to build back into the game. It was proving difficult to switch from defensive to attacking mode and with City on the run of 15 straight wins, it was difficult to
see a way back into the match.

In the 58th minute Ndombele and Kane worked the ball up the left wing, but Tanguy’s shot when he was inside the box was deflected and went softly straight to Ederson. Sterling had the beating of Davies almost every time, but he was covered well by his defensive team-mates, but with nine men back a lot of the time, Spurs could not find an out ball. Just after the hour, Dele came on in place of Ndombele and then Lamela picked up his obligatory booking for a crude pull back on Cancelo.

A long pass down the middle from Ederson caught Sanchez under the ball and Gundogan took the ball to his left, leaving Davinson on the ground and the German stroked the ball to Hugo’s left to wrap the game up.  It was poor defending by Sanchez, who should have got the ball away before it bounced and known where Gundogan was. Not that I expected to get much from this game, but it was turning into a bit of a procession.  Gundogan went off shortly after with a groin injury, but it didn’t affect the way the game was going. Almost the last throw of the dice to get anything from the game came in the 72nd minute when Bale came off the bench to take Lamela’s place. Working hard throughout the game, City got the luck it brought as Ederson muffed a clearance under pressure from Kane, but it still found a blue shirt. 

Dier was shown a yellow card for dragging Jesus to the floor, but when Cancelo studded Son on the ankle, nothing was done about it and that should have been considered as far more endangering the safety of a player than Dier’s pull. With ten minutes to go, Bale had a shot from 25 yards, which was blocked, but it came back to him and he shifted the ball between three City defenders to get a shot off and Ederson was forced into a save. When a cross came in from the right, Dele went for it and Laporte pushed through him as he jumped, but no penalty resulted. It was a shocker by the referee, especially when a free-kick would have been given anywhere else on the pitch for the same offence.

Whether it was City taking their foot off the pedal, but Tottenham were pressing better in the last ten minutes, although the ball was still being passed around our green shirts, but without as much determined attacking vigour as the home team used earlier in the game. However, a late corner for the home team was cleared, retrieved and then played in to Sterling, whose low shot was kicked out by Lloris. It might have been ruled out as Foden looked to have handled the ball in the build-up anyway.  You just can’t tell these days.  A late Spurs corner was played straight into Ederson’s hands and he rolled the ball out starting a break, which led to Davies bringing down Mahrez for another booking.

Unfortunately, it was another tame display by Tottenham and while we did well with little possession in the home game, there was little to get excited about in this performance.  Coming up against City in this form was never going to be easy, but where was all the attacking style that typified our early season form ?  Are the players suffering a crisis of confidence, because it is odd if they are.  They were knocking around the fifth place in the table and are in the League Cup final in April, so what has deflated them so much in such a short time ?  Kane’s injury was over quicker than expected and while we have lost Reguilon and Lo Celso to longer term injury and they added a different ingredient to the team, adequate replacements have been available.  Maybe it is still a mental thing about the other top six sides, but that doesn’t explain the results against Brighton and Everton.

Mourinho has a lot to do to instil some belief in the side if that is the issue.  Other than that, he needs to sort out the defence, as chopping and changing does nothing to build an understanding between the keeper and the back four.  With a European match in midweek, it leaves only a few days to prepare for the weekend’s match at the Taxpayer’s Stadium.  We need to be ready.

Pete Stachio

 

MATCH NOTES

 

OTHER RESULTS
Crystal Palace 0 Burnley 3
Brighton & Hove Albion 0 Aston Villa 0
Leicester City 3 Liverpool 1
Woolwich Wanderers 4 Leeds United 2
Everton 0 Fulham 2
West Bromwich Albion 1 Manchester United 1
South Coast Big Club 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers 2
West Ham United London  
Sheffield United  
Chelsea
Newcastle United
 

Premier League Table 2020-21

Played Won Drawn Lost For Against Points Goal difference
1 Manchester City 23 16 5 2 46 14 53 +32
2 Manchester United 24 13 7 4 50 31 46 +19
3 Leicester City 24 14 4 6 42 26 46 +16
4 Liverpool 24 11 7 6 45 32 40 +13
5 Chelsea 23 11 6 6 38 24 39 +14
6 West Ham United London 23 11 6 6 34 28 39 +6
7 Everton 22 11 4 7 34 30
37 +4
8 Aston Villa 22 11 3 8 36 24 36 +12
9 Tottenham Hotspur 23 10 6 7 36 25 36 +11
10 Woolwich Wanderers 24 10 4 10 31 25 34 +6
11 Leeds United 23 10 2 11 40 42 32 -2
12 Wolverhampton Wanderers 24 8 6 10 26 32 30 -6
13 South Coast Big Club 23 8 5 10 30 39 29 -9
14 Crystal Palace 24 8 5 11 27 42 29 -15
15 Brighton & Hove Albion 24 5 11 8 25 30 26 -5
16 Burnley 23 7 5 11 17 29 26 -12
17 Newcastle United 23 7 4 12 25 38 25 -13
18 Fulham 23 3 9
11 19 31 18 -12
19 West Bromwich Albion 24 2 7 15 19 55 13 -36
20 Sheffield United 23 3 2 18 15 37 11 -22