I can’t think of a more Spurs thing to do than to help out Arsenal by beating their title rivals. Spurs have pulled off the impossible by beating a really poor Manchester City 1-0, ensuring Arsenal still has a 5-point lead at the top.
Where do I start with this game? I guess I’ll go with the winning side.
All of those Tottenham Hotspur players should really be proud of themselves for the performance they not only put in this game against the title favorites Manchester City, but also with the way they responded to the events over the last two weeks. I’m sure all Spurs fans know what has been going on with the club, but the rest of the Premier League fanbase might not realize that Spurs were practically in a mini crisis only a 10 or so days ago.
Having won just one (a 4-0 beatdown of Crystal Palace) of their opening four Premier League games after the World Cup break, the calls for Antonio Conte and Daniel Levy’s heads were ramping up as Tottenham dropped from being comfortably in the Top-4 at the start of the World Cup to struggling to hold onto 5th place in the table.
Plus, bad losses to Aston Villa (2-0), Manchester City (4-2), and archnemesis Arsenal (2-0) did not help calm the nerves and animosity building within the Spurs fans.
To be honest, I didn’t think Antonio Conte was going to last too much longer as the Spurs head coach if the club hadn’t gone on a 3-game winning streak to not only come within just 3 points of the Top-4, but also book their place into the Round of 16 of the FA Cup. Yes, their 1-0 win over surprising Top-4 rivals Fulham and a 3-0 thrashing of Preston North End last weekend in the FA Cup eased the Spurs faithful’s anger, while this win must surely by Conte a few more months at the helm.
And, funnily enough, he wasn’t even on the sidelines.
Unfortunately, Conte had to get his gallbladder removed a few days ago and his recovery time meant that he was going to miss the Man City game, which is the kind of loss that should have derailed Spurs’ momentum and confidence. Yet, the players seemed to only strengthen as a unit as they handled Man City’s rather one-dimensional attack today with class.
Sure, Man City had complete control of possession (as they always do) with 65% of the ball, but Spurs’ midfield of Pierre-Emilie Højbjerg, Rodrigo Bentancur, Emerson, and Ivan Perisic were super aggressive in their tackling and pressing of City’s midfield as Spurs’ 19 fouls, 2 Yellow Cards, and 1 Red Card stats show.
Kevin de Bruyne, Rodri, and Bernado Silva were woeful as they got overwhelmed whenever the ball came to their feet, which played a massive part in the breakdown of City’s attack as they just couldn’t get the ball to Erling Haaland.
But, before I talk about Man City, I have to give credit to the matchwinner and the new top goal scorer in Spurs franchise history: Harry Kane.
Surpassing the legendary Jimmy Greaves (1961-1970) with his 267th career goal Spurs goal, Harry Kane has now immortalized himself in Tottenham folklore as its greatest ever finisher. And I have to say that it is well earned as even though Spurs have never achieved the heights one might expect, Harry Kane has always been clinical in front of goal.
On the back of a City turnover inside their own half, Harry Kane simply had to pass the ball past Ederson into the right corner when he received it 15-yards inside the penalty box, securing both the victory for Spurs (with a huge helping hand from a heroic defensive performance) and his name forever remembered by the White half of North London.
As for Man City, they really are in a bit of a slump.
Sure they’ve won their last three games since the Man United loss, but they have not been convincing. Erling Haaland has been shutdown, the midfield looks disjointed and slow, and the defense is getting more shuffled than an Uno card deck. Simply put, Pep Guardiola doesn’t know what his best team is or who he can implicitly trust to produce at the moment, which should really worry City fans.
Moreover, with De Bruyne being benched today and Joao Cancleo strangely going out on loan to Bayern Munich on deadline day, there might be some trouble brewing below the Man City perfection facade that is getting ready to boil over.
But you know who the big winner of this game really was? Obviously, it’s Arsenal as they kept their 5-point lead atop the table and didn’t get punished for a terrible 1-0 loss to relegation fodder Everton yesterday.
This really could be the year Gunner fans…
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