Full time: Manchester City 2-2 Tottenham Hotspur
An enormously entertaining game comes to an end. Manchester City leave the field with all kinds of moral victories but only one point. They were superb, with De Bruyne giving a performance of Iniestian perfection. Spurs were overwhelmed for much of the game but showed impressive resilience to come from 2-0 down. They were still bloody lucky though, particularly when Kyle Walker got away with a clear foul in his own area just a minute before Son’s equaliser. Thanks for your company; goodnight.
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90+1 min Gorgeous play from De Bruyne, who stretches to kill a difficult pass on the right and then surges past Dier into the box. He crosses to the near post, where Wanyama stretches to kick the ball onto Delph and away. That was brilliant from Wanyama and from De Bruyne, who has played gloriously throughout this match. There have been some really good performances but De Bruyne is the Man of the Match by a mile.
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90 min David Silva is replaced by Fabian Delph. A like-for-like substitution. There will be four minutes of added time.
89 min Son skips Otamendi down the left, and Sane gets back to buy some time with an important tackle to concede a throw-in.
87 min Aguerrrrrrrooooooo’s shot from pretty much that position is kicked away by Lloris, but he was offside anyway.
87 min The makeshift centre-half Wanyama is booked for a foul on Aguero. Talking of which...
“Rob, in case you get bored again in the second half, and not to be pedantic in any way, but your readers would want to know that since Agüero is a Spanish name and not Germanic, that diacritic you were enjoying in Agüero is a diaeresis, not an umlaut,” says Alastair Binnie. “How do I know? I’m married to Zoë.”
Ach, yes that’s my mistake, apologies. I like polite emails like this. I’m too old for the exchange of abuse.
84 min John Stones is on for Gael Clichy.
JESUS HAS A GOAL DISALLOWED!
Bloody hell. He has made a dramatic start to his City career and seemed to have given them the lead when he turned in De Bruyne’s cross shot at the far post. He wheeled away on a lap of honour only to realise the flag was up; it was the right decision. Poor old Pep was mid-celebration when he realised, and fell straight to his knees in frustration. What a match this has been!
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82 min Here comes City’s new Brazilian teenager Gabriel Jesus, in place of Raheem Sterling. He is straight into the match, first crossing along the face of goal and then looping a header just over the bar!
80 min Spurs could nick this. Zabaleta makes a great tackle in the box on Rose and concedes a corner.
79 min Sissoko replaces Dembele for Spurs.
78 min To compound City’s radge, Kane may have been offside as well. It was very tight. But the big issue is Walker’s clear foul on Sterling, which should have been a penalty and a red card. City should be 3-1 up against 10 men; instead they are drawing 2-2 against 11.
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Pep Guardiola will go mad, and he has every right to go mad. The goal was beautifully constructed by Spurs though. Eriksen played it into to Kane, who flicked it across the box to Son, and he dragged a precise shot across Bravo and into the far corner!
GOAL! Manchester City 2-2 Spurs (Son 77)
Moments after that penalty appeal, Son makes it 2-2!
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76 min Sterling bursts through on goal, one on one against Lloris. Walker shoves him in the back and an off-balance Sterling stabs his shot straight at Lloris. That looked a clear penalty, and Pep Guardiola is doing his nut on the touchline. It was almost comically brazen from Walker, the kind of thing you do in the school playground when a kid you don’t like is about to shoot.
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75 min Sane slips cleverly away from Walker in the box but his cut-back is cleared.
74 min I’d love to know what diet Rose and Walker are on. They are relentlessness personified, an absolutely brilliant part of attacking full-backs who have been Spurs’ biggest attacking threat today.
73 min “Spurs may have six midfielders,” says Dom Thomas, “but Pep still winning the full back deployment race.”
He would have killed to coach Clayton Blackmore. And imagine what he’d have done with Terry Phelan.
72 min Spurs are dominating possession now, human nature being what it is. City look pretty comfortable at the back, however, and at the moment they look more likely to score on the break.
69 min It’s hard to see this ending 2-1, such is the renewed purpose of Spurs’ attacking and particularly City’s menace on the counter-attack.
66 min “And it’s Sané, not Sane,” says Ivor Smith. “Can’t you find that one either?”
64 min This is bad news for Spurs: Toby Alderweireld is going off with what looks like a hamstring injury. Jan Vertonghen is out as well, and Wimmer has gone off today, so Harry Winks is coming on. That means Wanyama will have to play at centre-back with Dier. Pep Guardiola must be extremely envious: Spurs have six central midfielders on the pitch now.
62 min De Bruyne, who has had an outstanding game in the centre of midfield, plays a fine through pass to Sterling. He flicks the ball beyond Rose and then goes down in the box. I thought it was a penalty at first; Andre Marriner disagreed, and replays showed it was an exceptional hook tackle from Rose.
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61 min Son is a bit fortunate to avoid a yellow card for kicking the ball away.
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60 min That was Spurs’ first shot on target. They look so much sharper in attack now. Kane, onside as City push up in hope rather than expectation, just fails to reach Alli’s through ball.
GOAL! Manchester City 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur (Alli 58)
Now then! Spurs are back in it. Walker’s outstanding cross from the right nicks off the head of the stretching Otamendi, and Alli reacts to head emphatically past Bravo. That’s a fine goal.
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56 min Spurs are attacking with the urgency of the affronted, and must now be regretting their relative passivity in the first half.
55 min This has been a great day for City and an even better one for Chelsea, who are now surely the 2016-17 champions. They have turned a six-horse race into a procession.
It’s so rare to see Lloris make mistakes but he has been at fault for both goals today. Sterling on the right mishit a cross that was too close to Lloris, but he spilled it straight at the feet of De Bruyne and he tapped it in from six yards.
GOAL! Manchester City 2-0 Spurs (De Bruyne 53)
City go 2-0 up after a dreadful mistake from Lloris!
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52 min Alli is fouled by Otamendi, who then stops him taking a quick free-kick. Alli shoves him over and is booked; Otamendi gets a yellow card as well.
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After all that great football, City take the lead with a scruffy goal. De Bruyne, just inside his own half, spotted Sane’s run and drove a fine angled pass over the top. It bounced up on the edge of the box, where Lloris had come out to sweeper-keep. He launched into a diving header that hit the outstretched hand of Sane and bounced back towards goal, allowing Sane to walk the ball into the net. Lloris mistimed his header, which flew off the side of his head and hit Sane as a result; had he connected properly he would have cleared it. Howard Webb, on BT Sport, says Sane should not have been penalised for that handball as he was so close to Lloris and knew bugger all about it.
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GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 Spurs (Sane 49)
City finally take the lead!
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47 min “Is there some unknown force at work here?” says Benjamin Park. “How do City keep missing these chances? I’m starting to think this is all just a cosmic event, and that it is scientifically impossible for them to score.”
Fortunately Brian Cox has just popped up on my Snapchat, so I’ll ask him if he’s heard owt.
46 min City begin the second half, kicking from right to left.
Spurs have made a half-time substitution, with Son replacing Kevin Wimmer. So Dier will go to centre-back and Spurs will switch from a 4-1-4-1 to a 4-2-3-1. And I’m boring myself.
“Wotcha, Rob,” chirps Mac Millings. “Emailing you from a robotics competition my son is competing in, here in deepest South Carolina - the first State, you will recall, to secede from the Union in the lead-up to the American Civil War, and soon to hold a referendum to change its name to Utrumpia. Probably. Tried to avoid the inauguration, but that’s hard when it’s being live-puked out of the many widescreen TVs haunting every corner of my workplace.”
Look, it was just locker-room banter.
“Hi Rob,” says Sam Critchley, “If it didn’t have the two dots it would be pronounced Ag-ero, as opposed to Ag-wero. So the ü is important, but I can never find it on the keyboard and end up copy-pasting it from the internet (in this case your min-by-min), which often means the typeface gets changed.”
Indeed. In reports and features Agüero would always take an umlaut, but the minute-by-minutes are so frenetic and instant that there isn’t really time for diacritics. It’s not ideal but it beats the alternative.
Half-time reading
Half time: Manchester City 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur
City have demolished Spurs 0-0. See you in 10 minutes for the second half.
45+2 min Kane dupes Kolarov, who takes a yellow card for the cause.
45+1 min There will be two minutes of added diacritic banter. Spurs really need their half-time Gatorade chaser.
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45 min “Surely the Güardian Style Güide, no?” says Colin Máckáy.
44 min Yaya Toure’s low cross is desperately half-cleared to Sterling, whose shot is blocked with similar desperation. Then Sterling goes over in the box after a struggle with Wanyama. Andre Marriner isn’t interested.
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43 min I don’t think Spurs have been too bad in possession; they’ve just been a bit overwhelmed by City’s quality and intensity. Some of their defending has been less than utopian, however.
40 min This just in for Ivor Smith, editor of the Guardian Style Guide. “His name is Agüero, not Aguero.”
39 min How’s this for Total Football? Bravo drives a pass over the top to Otamendi, who breaks down the right and puts in a cross that deflects onto the roof of the net. The longer this goes on, the more you feel a Spurs victory is inevitable. City have been almost embarrassingly dominant.
38 min Another chance for City! Aguero beats Alderweireld to a long pass forward, then beats him again before hitting a left-footed shot from a narrow angle that is turned round by Lloris.
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37 min Beautiful play from City. Aguero evades a series of tackles in the D and plays it to De Bruyne on the right of the box. He stands up a cross to the far post, where Aguero arrives to head towards goal. Lloris makes a comfortable if dramatic save.
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36 min “Evening Rob,” says Simon McMahon. “Big day for The Donald yesterday. Wonder if he set aside his teetotal-ry and ended up like the guy in Limmy’s ‘Smart Casual’ sketch? One of my favourites.”
That clip is brilliant. It’s also one of the few that are safe to publish on an MBM. I think the Vine where he kills his da might be my favourite.
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34 min City break three on two but Aguero dithers and then plays a terrible pass to De Bruyne. The ball comes back to Clichy on the left, who swings in a deep cross. Sane gets in front of Rose, stoops forward and heads wide of the far post. He should have scored. Everyone talks about City’s defence, and that’s fair enough, but missed chances have been such a theme of their season.
31 min Spurs have their best spell of possession in the match, which gives their defence a timely breather. Rose’s sharp cross from the left is well cleared by Otamendi, and then Wanyama clatters a bouncing ball miles over the bar from long range.
27 min Dier loses the ball in a dangerous position - Spurs have done that a few times today - and De Bruyne surges into the box on the right. He is caught in two minds and eventually screws an inviting but futile low ball that drifts a few yards wide of the far post.
26 min Spurs have moved Dier into midfield so that they can match City’s 4-1-4-1 formation. Sometimes, tactics can be so hot.
24 min “Love that goal from Terry Phelan,” begins James Crane, “although - whilst ever so slightly random - my favourite moment of his career will always be the look on this coupon after Ray Houghton’s goal against Italy in WC94 - specifically the absolute refusal to crack a smile whilst surrounded by faces of pure elation.”
Maybe he was still worrying about whether he was wearing the correct kit.
23 min City are doing to Spurs what Spurs did to them at White Hart Lane in October. The only difference is that Spurs were 1-0 up at this stage.
21 min Harry Kane has just had his first touch of the match. Seriously.
20 min Silva has fair too much room 25 yards out. It would be rude not to shoot, and he’s a polite young fella, so he drives a bobbling shot towards the far corner. Lloris gets down to his left to make a fine save, tipping it round for a corner. City almost score from the corner as well. De Bruyne clips it deliberately back to Zabaleta on the edge of the box, and he rifles a left-footed shot this far wide of the far post with Lloris motionless. This is exhilarating stuff from City.
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17 min City have been terrific so far. That’s all.
15 min “Would love to be watching,” says Rachel Clifton, “but will have to rely on your updates as heading to the Women’s March in NYC. Love trumps hate etc.”
On that subject, sort of, some of these responses to Limmy are inadvertent comedy gold.
14 min De Bruyne clips an angled free-kick over the defence for Otamendi, whose cushioned volley across the six-yard box is desperately cleared by Alderweireld. On reflection, Otamendi should probably have gone for goal himself.
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13 min Dier is booked for pulling back Aguero. Spurs are rattled.
12 min City press Spurs high up again. Wimmer fouls Zabaleta just outside the area; play goes on and Aguero drives just over the bar. Wimmer is booked when the ball goes dead.
11 min Alderweireld makes a sensational goal-saving challenge to deny ... Zabaleta?! De Bruyne and Aguero combined on the edge of the box before the ball was slipped behind the defence. Zabaleta had followed the play and was through, but Alderweireld came round the side to make a wonderful tackle.
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10 min Spurs look just slightly unsettled by City’s pressing and intensity. City will certainly be happier with the first 10 minutes.
7 min Sterling makes a fine run infield onto a good pass from De Bruyne. Rose jockeys him all the way from right to left, an excellent piece of defending, though Sterling will probably regret not taking an early shot when he had the chance.
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6 min It’s been a lively start from both sides, especially City. Otamendi misinterprets the can-do mood and shots from 40 yards. Don’t ever do that again, Nicolas.
3 min Alderweireld drives a crossfield pass towards Rose on the left. Zabaleta slips, which allows Rose to burst into the box. His first touch is heavy and his second, a cut-back from the byline, hits Otamendi and deflects to safety. Then Wanyama falls over and grabs the ball. Andre Marriner gives a free-kick but not a yellow card.
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2 min “Was Zabaleta always played by Mark Strong?” asks Michael Hunt.
No, only since 2014. Stanley Tucci played him before then.
1 min Peep peep! Spurs, in white, kick off from right to left. City are in sky blue. This has to be a great game, right?
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There will be some great players on the pitch today. But none of them will top this goal from Terry Phelan in this fixture 24 years ago.
“Afternoon Rob,” says Gene Mackie. “Pep appears to have gone for an all-out attack, given that a collection of concrete posts could have done a better job against Everton than his back five. I feel Sane and Sterling could do a good job pinning the Spurs defence back, especially considering the not-very-mobile Wimmer in the back three. That said, Kane and Alli must be looking at the Toure-Otamendi-Kolarov triangle and licking their lips.”
Indeed. Optimism is a dangerous game these days but this could - could - be the game of the season.
Team news
Manchester City (4-1-4-1) Bravo; Zabaleta, Otamendi, Kolarov, Clichy; Toure; Sane, De Bruyne, Silva, Sterling; Aguero.
Substitutes: Caballero, Kompany, Fernando, Nolito, Delph, Stones, Jesus
Tottenham Hotspur (3-4-2-1) Lloris; Dier, Alderweireld, Wimmer; Walker, Wanyama, Dembele, Rose; Eriksen, Alli; Kane.
Substitutes: Vorm, Trippier, Davies, Carter-Vickers, Winks, Sissoko, Son.
Referee Andre Marriner.
Preamble
Hello. Manchester City might be level on points with Spurs this evening, yet at the moment the two teams feel worlds apart. Spurs are a feelgood coming-of-age-film disguised as a football team, and have won their last seven games; City were walloped at Everton last week and are in danger of finishing outside the top four for the first time since 2010, with Pep Guardiola under pressure like never before. The turning point in their season so far was defeat at White Hart Lane in October; they will hope that a win today might have the opposite effect.
Kick off is at 5.30pm.
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