Tottenham leaves Manchester City dry

Straight

Pep Guardiola imagined a game and another happened.

Manchester City is stuck, which chains two consecutive defeats at home and misses the opportunity to get closer to Arsenal in the standings.

The Premier League champion (1-0) fell in north London against a highly successful Tottenham.

For the first time so far this season, the Spurs beat a rival that precedes them in the standings.

They did it in time to stay in the race for fourth place and maintain their status as a Champions League side.

Now he is fifth, one point behind Newcastle, an unexpected guest at the party.

Above everything remains the same.

Arsenal, with one game less, is five points away from City.

On the horizon comes the first duel between the two, on the 15th.

TOTTOTTENHAM

1

Lloris, Cristian Romero, Eric Dier, Ben Davies, Rodrigo Bentancur, Emerson, Perisic (Ryan Sessegnon, min. 78), Hojbjerg, Dejan Kulusevski (Davinson Sánchez, min. 88), Kane and Heung-Min Son (Yves Bissouma, min .84)

MNC M City

0

Ederson Moraes, Aké, Manuel Akanji, Walker, Rico Lewis, Mahrez (De Bruyne, min. 58), Grealish, Bernardo Silva (Gündogan, min. 84), Rodrigo, Erling Braut Haaland and Julián Álvarez

Goals

1-0 min.

14: Kane.

Referee

Andy Madley

Yellow cards Rodrigo Bentancur (min. 22), Cristian Romero (min. 25), Perisic (min. 75), Ederson Moraes (min. 82), Walker (min. 96) and Grealish (min. 97)

It all started with Kevin de Bruyne on the bench, an extraordinary event.

"Tactical reasons," Guardiola explained at the end.

With the result in hand, there is an argument to criticize his coach, who wanted to hit and found an ordeal.

Guardiola looked for shortcuts, brought Julián Álvarez and Erling Haaland together in the same eleven, but they denied him the paths to that double forward flanked by Mahrez and Grealish, two of the coach's favorites in recent times.

In the midfield he was armed with Rodri and Rico Lewis, the 18-year-old boy who is cooked at City to operate in the role of winger-midfielder with whom João Cancelo made his fortune, now on loan to Bayern.

Bernardo Silva operated as a hinge.

The plan didn't work.

Tottenham settled in without any major problems and became even stronger when, shortly before the quarter hour of the game, Kane punished a mistake by Rodri when he released the ball.

It was not the best game for the midfielder of the Spanish team.

Kane celebrated a goal with a special flavor, number 200 in the Premier, 267 in his career with Tottenham to become the top scorer in the club's history, ahead of the legendary Jimmy Greaves, a world champion.

"It's been magical," Kane said at the end of the game.

His joy contrasted with the despondency of Haaland, who left without finishing off a goal once and, what is most amazing, without touching the ball on a single occasion in the rival area.

“Haaland is unique.

Suddenly he doesn't score and there are already questions about whether we play better with him, but I didn't hear anyone say that when he scored his 25th goal so far this season the other day, ”said Kyle Walker, one of the heavyweights in the dressing room. of the City.

Tottenham had the loss of their coach Antonio Conte, who is recovering from gallbladder surgery.

It was a stony team that closed with the passing of the minutes and alternated periods of calm with moments of anxiety.

Mahrez could have hurt him on the edge of the break with a shot that went to the crossbar.

And when Guardiola called Kevin de Bruyne they lay down even more on their area.

"I was looking for the last pass," explained the coach.

But that pass did not come.

Julián Álvarez, who had more participation than Haaland, looked at the equalizer in a blackboard action that went near the post with all the spurs under the crossbar.

It seems like a witch thing, perhaps the explanation is more rational.

City gets stuck when they visit Tottenham's new stadium, where they have already gone five times and not only have they lost every time but have not even scored a goal.

"Finding an explanation is not easy," Guardiola summed up.

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