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Moving Up
Tottenham Hotspur remains unbeaten this month after blanking Manchester City 2-0 on Saturday.
Pep Guardiola’s side was behind early when Son Heung-Min scored five minutes into the contest and the Blues never recovered.
Substitute Giovani Lo Celso provided the home side with some insurance with a second in the 65th minute.
The win moves Jose Mourinho’s team into first place for the moment in the Premier League standings with 20 points.
Game Story
Riding a nine-game unbeaten run heading into today’s game City had as bad a start as one could ask for.
Five minutes into the contest they were already behind when the Blues defence left too much space for Son.
The league’s top-scorer went in alone against Ederson and tucked his effort between the Brazilians legs.
Spurs thought they’d doubled the lead on 13 minutes but Harry Kane’s goal is disallowed for offside.
From there City appeared to wake up dominating possession.
A free-kick from Kevin De Bruyne in the 15th minute found the head of Rodri whose effort sailed over the bar.
Just before the half-hour mark City thought they levelled the match.
Aymeric Laporte fired home a goal in the 28th minute off a low cross inside the box by Gabriel Jesus.
Unfortunately, VAR intervened and the goal was disallowed after Jesus controlled the ball with his arm.
In the 41st minute, some great work from Riyad Mahrez and Ferran Torres saw them slide through the Spurs defence.
Some desperate defending saw a loose ball go to Jesus but his strike found the side netting.
City continued the pressure early in the second half.
Rodri’s ball to De Bruyne in the 51st minute saw the Belgian sail his 20-yard effort wide of the right post.
In the 65th minute momentum shifted when Spurs went 2-0 up.
Lo Celso came on for Tanguy Ndombele.
Immediately into the action, Kane found the Argentine on the left inside channel.
On his first touch, he found the bottom right corner past the onrushing Ederson.
The Blues continued to see most of the ball but struggled to create any chances after that.
Ruben Dias came close to scoring in the 90th minute heading the De Bruyne cross straight at Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris.
Raheem Sterling fed Joao Cancelo beautifully in the 91st minute but his curling effort went wide.
Coming to an end
It’s still early on but this is City’s second defeat of the season.
It’s the first loss for the team in their last 10 fixtures across all competitions.
The last time they’d lost a competitive match was 5-2 to Leicester City on September 27.
The loss comes just a couple of days after the club extended Pep Guardiola’s contract until 2023.
Stats
This is the first time Spurs have won back-to-back league games against the Blues since a run of three between September 2015 and October 2016.
This loss marks the lowest points total for a City squad since the early stages of the 2008/09 campaign when they collected just 10 points at this stage.
Currently, they have 12 points from eight matches and sit in 10th position.
Harry Kane now has nine assists from nine EPL fixtures.
That’s more than anyone in the Premier League at the moment.
Kane had just eight assists in his previous three Premier League campaigns combined.
Managers Thoughts
After the match, Pep Guardiola said the poor start played a big factor in today’s game.
“The perfect scenario for them, we concede a goal after five minutes, we knew Kane would drop, Bergwijn and Son run in behind, we could have done better,” says Guardiola.
He says in order to climb up the standings the team’s job is simple.
“We have to try to win, we are further away than we wanted to be, so we have to start to win, we want to be there until the end. It is a weird season, for many reasons.”
Tottenham’s Jose Mourinho meanwhile was all smile in what he called a great team effort.
“Every player did their job in an amazing way, even what we used to call the emergency principles which is when somebody, whether they’re tired or by losing a certain position, is not there. You have the emergency rules, everybody has an incredible friendship and solidarity, everybody was amazing.”
Next up
City’s focus now shifts to the Champions League where they travel to Greece to face Olympiakos on Wednesday at 5:55 pm.
Their next Premier League fixture is Saturday against Burley at 3 pm. (JSL)
