For a couple of seconds, Harry Kane felt the crowd go quiet and everything turn to slow motion. The only sound was the thump of his heart. It was not an easy chance and the Tottenham Hotspur striker relied upon instinct to steer the half-volley towards goal.
Kane reacted after Christian Eriksen’s 61st minute free-kick had come back off the crossbar and it was one of those efforts that could have gone anywhere. In the weeks gone by it would have flown off target but, this time, it was drifting towards the far, top corner.
Willy Caballero, the Manchester City goalkeeper who played because Joe Hart had been deemed unfit, was beaten and all anybody could do was wait. Kane had waited 687 minutes for his first Tottenham goal of the season. What were another couple of heartbeats?
The explosion of joy and relief when the ball sailed in told its own story. Mauricio Pochettino, the Tottenham manager, puffed out his cheeks while up in the stands, Roy Hodgson, the England manager, beamed broadly. Kane charged off towards the crowd, the emotion pouring out.
“Maybe I shut up a few people who have been talking over the last few weeks,” Kane said. “A few people said: ‘One-season wonder.’ People will big you up when you do well and when you are not doing so well, they are the ones who talk you down.
“It is frustrating but I use it to get my juices flowing and to prove these people wrong. It is great to score. When you score like I did last season, it becomes a drug and when someone takes it away from you, you want to get it back.
“It was a harder chance than it looked, it came quick towards me and it seemed to be slow motion. I was delighted. Sometimes you need a bit of luck. I probably have not had that this season.”
When the ball found the net, it was confirmation that this was Tottenham’s day. And not that of City. Kane had been marginally offside when Eriksen struck the free-kick but not as blatantly as Kyle Walker when he had crossed for what would be their equaliser. After Caballero blocked from Son Heung-min, Kevin de Bruyne played a loose pass and Eric Dier fizzed home from 25 yards.
Cabellero had a poor game. He failed to set himself before Dier’s effort; he came for but did not reach Érik Lamela’s free-kick which Toby Alderweireld headed in for Tottenham’s second, and he was out-manoeuvred by Lamela for the fourth.
“Two offsides and a set-piece,” Manuel Pellegrini, the City manager, complained, as he sought to play up the freakish nature of the result and absolve his goalkeeper and central defenders. With Vincent Kompany and Eliaquim Mangala out injured, Martín Demichelis and Nicolás Otamendi did not look convincing.
But it was shocking to see how City capitulated after Dier’s equaliser. Previously, they had been in charge. De Bruyne took his goal well, even if he had looked offside to begin a trend while Yaya Touré dragged a 15th-minute chance wide and Hugo Lloris saved from Sergio Agüero, Raheem Sterling and Aleksandar Kolarov.
Tottenham, though, dominated after the interval, with City’s woes compounded by the loss of Touré to a hamstring injury. He becomes a doubt for Wednesday’s Champions League trip to Borussia Mönchengladbach and Pellegrini said that Kompany would probably not make it. David Silva is also out while Agüero did not look fully fit here. Hart, at least, should return.
Manchester City’s perfect start to the season – five Premier League wins, all without conceding a goal – has been overtaken by three defeats in four matches in all competitions and there are questions, rather abruptly, over the quality of the back-up players and the collective mentality.
“Maybe we have shown too much confidence,” Bacary Sagna, the City full-back, said. “We know we have quality players, we know we can be champions but you also have to work well. We had to keep playing as a team, keep some composure and we didn’t have it.
“We were too nice, we lost too many duels and we have to be killers. It was the same against Juventus in the Champions League defeat. We had the chance to score goals and we didn’t. The offside goal [for Tottenham’s equaliser] changed the game but it’s not an excuse. We should have killed the game.”
It was a glorious afternoon for Tottenham, one to reinforce their belief that they can beat anybody on their day and there was a sight for sore eyes beyond Kane’s goal when Lamela was withdrawn to a standing ovation. The club’s record signing has driven fans around the bend but there had been flickers from him in his previous three appearances and it all came together in a driving and decisive performance.
“He’s never let the criticism affect him,” Kane said. “He’s worked hard on his own, after training, so he deserves what he gets. I’m very pleased for him. Hopefully, he can keep building his confidence.”
Man of the Match Erik Lamela (Tottenham Hotspur)
