Here is David Hytner’s match report from Wembley:
And on that note I’ll leave you. We got a game of football, rather than NFL or anything else, in the end even if it wasn’t the best. City won’t mind – they march on. Thanks for your company and contributions, and goodnight!
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@NickAmes82 Tbf to Tottenham, its the best performance they've put in against city since the first game Guardiola was in charge. Normally we get completely taken apart from city.
— Alex Perring (@Al_Perring) October 29, 2018
They didn’t get blown away like last season, sure. But City were far from their best at the back tonight and if Spurs had been at their sharpest I think they could have punished them.
Mahrez speaks – mainly about the tragic events at his old club Leicester:
“To be honest it’s been very, very difficult for me. It’s not easy to have this type of stuff. The boss [Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha] was very special to me, I spent four and a half years there and have many memories with him. He was such a good person and I’m very, very sad, it’s why when I scored I put my hands to the sky for him. He did a lot for me and for Leicester and it’s difficult to speak about it.
“He was like a dad for us, very, very special, believe me he was such a good person with a big heart. It was heartbreaking and shocking to hear this news. I’m with Leicester and the families of the victims as it was a shocking situation.
“I always wanted to play tonght, I know he would have wanted me to, he was very passionate about football. It was difficult, difficult to sleep after that, but it’s part of life.”
It started well but wasn’t a good game, that, and I don’t really think the pitch can be blamed. City were sleeker, slicker and should have scored more – but they also handed a below-par Spurs a couple of good chances, a very good chance in Lamela’s case, and that rather summed the whole affair up. It was loose, error-strewn and uncertain, particularly in the case of both defences. Guardiola won’t like that but he’ll like the fact that City got the job done. Spurs, meanwhile, continue to look a notch below their best and – to be blunt – they really need to get out of Wembley asap and concentrate on being themselves.
Full-time: Spurs 0-1 Manchester City
That early Mahrez goal wins it! City go top of the pile once again.
90+5 min: The ropey Walker causes flutters by heading a diagonal ball past Ederson ... and wide! Late, late corner for Spurs – it could have been worse – and what can they make of it? Same as all the others, it turns out.
90+4 min: De Bruyne takes the ball towards the right corner flag. He concedes a throw-in but City are almost there.
90+2 min: Now City tun down some more of the clock, Jesus replacing the likely matchwinner Mahrez.
90+1 min: Eriksen works space on the left again but can’t find his usual quality delivery, overcooking a cross to loud sighs.
89 min: City make a time-wasting substitution as Spurs look to take a free-kick that was awarded a good 90 seconds ago, Kompany coming on for an unrushed David Silva. The time *never* gets added on correctly in these instances. We have four added minutes to come and we’ve just used about half of that time!
87 min: Good movement again from Eriksen, who hooks at Ederson on the stretch from an inside-left position. If Spurs could have been at full strength since the start ...
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85 min: Eriksen almost works the ball through for Kane, who has originally won possession against a meek Walker. It could be a spicy last few minutes, this.
84 min: Naughty foul by Sissoko on Sterling, although the crowd don’t appreciate its award at all. Tottenham want to keep up their new-found tempo.
83 min: ... which Eriksen, with his first involvement, undercooks. But for the first time in this half you wonder if Spurs might be able to force something – as they should have, already, through Lamela.
82 min: Now we see Eriksen, on for Moura. Do Spurs have their tails up? They win a corner ...
80 min: That was the chance! And that was a dreadful miss from Lamela! Mahrez, facing his own goal, gets preoccupied by Moura and Alli steals in. He carries the ball down the left and centres across for Lamela, who is right in front of goal and should sweep it into the net. He doesn’t – he spoons it over. It *really* should be 1-1. It did bobble a bit as it came over to him. Can we really blame the pitch for that though?
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78 min: This match has, you’d have to say, got progressively worse but there’s still a chance Tottenham – if they can just muster one opportunity – might make City pay for being imprecise.
76 min: It’s David Silva playing in a false nine-ish role for City now, tactics fans. I just wonder if City have started to allow Spurs onto them a little, since making that substitution.
75 min: De Bruyne, not up to speed yet, is mugged by Trippier and the ball finds its way to Lamela, who lets him off by curling well wide. Alli now comes on for Dembele. Late charge on the cards for Spurs?
73 min: Fernandinho has been absolutely brilliant tonight.
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71 min: A controllable Winks pass to Sissoko rebounds about 20 yards off the latter and that, right there, is one of Spurs’ biggest problems tonight. City bring on De Bruyne for an annoyed-looking Aguero.
69 min: A bit of “Come on you Spurs” as they win a free-kick on the right, but Walker nods it clear. Winks takes possession and carries the ball down the left, crossing well but just too high. Better from Spurs. It needs to be.
67 min: Harry Winks comes on for Dier – so no Alli or Eriksen yet but certainly a bit more progression on the ball.
66 min: Aguero does rather better with a snap shot from range that Lloris, alert for this one, dives to parry away to his left.
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65 min: And there’s another one to annoy the City manager. You’d back Aguero to score when, found by Silva in the box, he works the ball onto his left foot with space in the far corner to aim at. But he plants it too close to Lloris and Spurs, who are being thoroughly outplayed even if City are hardly at their best, ride again.
64 min: No sign of movement on the Spurs bench yet. It’s Guardiola who looks much the more animated coach. Presumably he’s still boiling over those misses.
61 min: It’s very, very hard to see Tottenham getting something out of this unless at least one of Eriksen and Alli comes on. Fernandinho is finally booked for preventing a Spurs raid illegally.
Loris showing (and he's not the only one) that you can become a bad player overnight @nickames82 #unexaminedassertions.
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) October 29, 2018
Great save from Mahrez though, to be fair.
58 min: Oh goodness, Walker really is off the mark. He makes ground right into the Spurs area, could try for a goal against his old club but then completely messes up a ball to Aguero. Will City, who currently look even more dominant than in the first half, be made to pay here?
55 min: Errrm ... how is that not 2-0? Guardiola kicks out in annoyance and well he might. Bernardo Silva gets behind a flat-footed defence on the right and tees up David Silva in front of goal, who isn’t quite set correctly for a tap-in and nudges it left instead to Sterling. The England winger shifts the ball onto his right foot, blasts past Lloris, but it hits a defender and pings away! City then waste a couple of set-pieces around the box. City, and perhaps David Silva especially, should have put the game to bed there.
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53 min: Cheers as Walker, a bit off beam tonight, blurts an overhit pass behind Lloris’s goal. I think on that occasion a bobble didn’t help. Then Sissoko surges upfield and Laporte is correctly booked for fouling him.
50 min: ... which David Silva hits into the wall, following suit when he gets a second bite. Lloris breathes a hefty sigh of relief.
49 min: Careless from Lloris there, skewing a simple goal kick right to Aguero. The forward is scythed down for a free-kick on the edge of the area ...
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47 min: Dembele, virtually invisible in the first half, is caught in possession by the excellent Fernandinho but Mahrez then overhits a cross from a decent position.
Peeeeep! Away we go again
What have Spurs got? What else have City got?
Email from Duncan Edwards on a theme we spoke about during that first half:
“Pep’s team do tend to get away with murder in terms of pullbacks and soft professional fouls designed to stop counterattacks. He’s got them well drilled – grab the arm or shoulder rather than the shirt, block but don’t body check with force, and foul early not after a chase. Fernandinho went through the whole repertoire in the first half without so much as a ticking off from the ref. Of course the official line is ‘work hard to get the ball back’ which they also do.
“Pep’s teams work very hard to stay onside, too, which must make life easier for his midfield players.
“Lastly. I’m convinced Sterling is the key player for City and should probably have been Footballer of the Year last season.”
@NickAmes82 Eriksen ... yeah. How about ... now!???! Yeah, now would be good. #COYS
— Michael Welch (@themike1w) October 29, 2018
I think they need him as soon as possible. They’re only really looking a threat when City make mistakes.
On a more sombre note, here is Sean Ingle’s report from a bleak, grief-stricken day in Leicester:
News from Real Madrid – they’ve, not very surprisingly, sacked Julen Lopetegui. Nobody’s been a winner from his appointment, have they? Here’s the great man Sid Lowe:
@NickAmes82 Spurs aren't quite what they almost were.
— Hubert O'Hearn (@BTBReviews) October 29, 2018
Ouch. Certainly not at their best tonight, it must be said.
Half-time: Spurs 0-1 Manchester City
Time for the half-time show, etcetera and so forth. That’s a fair scoreline as City have certainly been the better team, scoring a nice goal through Mahrez – albeit via a Trippier error – and threatening more when the same attacker hit the post via Lloris’ glove. Spurs have had a few flurries though, Kane coming close once and squandering a decent opening after that. The pitch looks atrocious but is playing well enough. This one’s still up for grabs – stay with us!
45 min: High dudgeon as Moura, who did well to drive in from the left, is booked for diving with Fernandinho in close attendance. The decision was correct – and the tumble totally needless.
43 min: At the other end, Dier makes a similarly daft foul in a similarly dangerous area. Sanchez deals with the delivery ... and then, with the ball still alive, slightly sketchily flicks a deep cross straight into the arms of a relieved Lloris with Aguero sniffing around.
41 min: Walker needlessly bundles into Moura and Spurs have a free-kick in a great position out on the left. Trippier’s delivery is a threat but it’s headed away from the lurking Kane inside the six-yard box.
39 min: Sterling plays in Bernardo Silva, who runs out of space on the left and sees an optimistic effort blocked. Newsflash: City are such a threat.
37 min: Lloris clutches a meaty David Silva drive after City again make good ground. Mahrez does excellently to track back and thwart the resulting Spurs counter.
35 min: It should have got better! This time Spurs go long from the back and Laporte gets the flight of it wrong, only succeeding in flicking it to Lamela. He promptly plays Kane in and you’d back him to finish the job ... but his first touch is heavy and allows Ederson to race out and smother bravely at his feet! That wasn’t Kane at his sharpest, although he dealt Ederson enough of a blow to necessitate a short spell of treatment.
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33 min: Spurs thread together their most pleasing back-to-front move yet but Fernandinho pickpockets the dawdling Lamela. That’s as good as it gets for them at the moment.
31 min: That previous chance came after lovely footwork from David Silva, who has been outstanding so far. Spurs need similar guile and will surely need to call upon Eriksen if the current pattern persists.
29 min: Mahrez hits the post! It’s a vital left hand from Lloris, in fact, pawing an angled effort onto the upright after City had again probed Spurs into near submission. The corner comes to nothing and the home team survive for now!
27 min: Another cunning City foul as Aguero fells Trippier. They do love those. It’s not all buttercups and daisies.
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26 min: My eyes have just about adjusted to this now.
23 min: Oh, that’s wasteful from Sissoko. Mendy makes a poor mistake, letting a Trippier ball roll under his foot, and the Frenchman is away down the right! He has aeons of time and acres of space, and could even drive one at goal from an angle. Instead he looks for the onrushing Lamela but Fernandinho, in a superb recovery, dashes back to nudge the ball away.
22 min: City are making it almost impossible to Spurs to play through midfield here, pressing their defence incredibly high. They look firmly in control at the moment, although Fernandino bails them out now with a very Guardiola-team-esque tactical foul after Lamela breaks into their half.
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20 min: “Terrible start for Spurs, but plenty of time for them to get back in it. We’re still in the first quarter, after all,” chortles Greg Phillips.
18 min: Kane miscues a relatively straightforward switch for Trippier. That spirited flurry from Spurs after the goal has dulled rather.
17 min: City ping the ball all around Spurs’ area before Bernardo Silva sees an angled drive deflect wide. Their attacking players seem in the mood. Martin Tyler has just made the “end zone” joke – which precedes Walker failing miserably to find it after the corner is played short to him.
14 min: It’s been a good, brisk start here. Aguero wants a free-kick after Sanchez barges him in the back on the right flank, and replays show he had a fair point.
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12 min: Sterling has plenty of space to get onto a cushioned David Silva lay-off but Alderweireld gets across to make a crucial block. The corner is cleared.
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@NickAmes82 Should be City 14-0, since they've been in Spurs' end zone twice already...
— Leo Addor (@LeoAddor) October 29, 2018
I’ll allow this one too.
10 min: Trippier gets to the City 10-yard line (OK, I won’t make any more of those) and earns a corner, which he takes himself. Alderweireld wins the header from it but Ederson saves well. Spurs have responded to that early setback though.
9 min: But Spurs almost level! Lamela finds Kane, who takes advantage of a rooted Stones and a poorly-positioned Ederson and tries his luck from 25 yards. The goalkeeper is mightily relieved as it swerves and dips over by the narrowest of margins.
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7 min: Sterling tries to double the lead but shoots wide. Brilliant start for City, this, and Wembley already seems very muted.
Goal! Tottenham 0-1 Man City (Mahrez 6)
The perfect start for City! Sterling, who had already enjoyed a little encouragement, capitalises as Trippier misjudges a long ball, then beats the full-back as he tries to recover. He gets to the byline and cuts back for Mahrez, on the run, to finish smartly from eight yards!
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5 min: City are navigating the magic-eye pattern marginally the better so far, although Sissoko just broke away briefly on the right without being able to get enough on a diagonal ball to the other side.
3 min: A few bobbles so far but I’m not sure the pitch is all that bad. It just looks terrible. On a night when most of the top tier is also empty, reflecting a surprising lack of appetite for this fixture, there are probably various things you could say about the state of modern football.
1 min: I’ll say it now – however the ball rolls, all these NFL lines, words and colours on the pitch are going to make this a confusing watch. It’s a joke, really.
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Peeeeeep! Off we go.
On a pitch marked with 50-40-30-20 lines as per NFL, Spurs get us started from the very middle of the American sport’s badge. Might help with offside decisions!
Before we start, everyone is to observe a minute’s silence for the tragic events in Leicester on Saturday.
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Out come the players to a ... not exactly full Wembley.
@NickAmes82 if Pep is the revolutionary coach we are led to believe he will have had the players doing the Tough Mudder. If not he must accept all the blame if they lose
— Fabian Crusoe (@FabianCrusoe1) October 29, 2018
No stone is to be left unturned in modern football preparations.
Can’t let tonight pass without a mention of Glenn Hoddle, by the way. Brilliant news that he is responding well after his heart attack at the weekend – a sentiment that will be echoed around the Tottenham fanbase with particular feeling.
Guardiola speaks!
“The Premier League is 38 games, Tottenham is always tough with the same manager and exceptional players. We know how complicated it will be but OK, we’ll try to maintain our level and we will see the performance of both sides will dictate the result. The pitch is what it is, no complaint.”
So does Pochettino!
“I am worried for both sides because the pitch is not in the best condition. The most important thing is that the players finish the game in a very good level.
From Marie Meyer: “I recall a Liverpool having a Champions League match somewhere in Eastern Europe years ago. Jerzy Dudek was getting ready to take a goal kick. You know how goalkeepers sort of mindlessly bounce the ball while they wait for the outfield players to sort themselves out? Dudek did that. Imagine his surprise when it didn’t bounce back - he had plopped it down into a puddle of mud, and there it stayed. An attacker was on him like a flash, so he had to fling himself into the mud as well in order to cover up the ball.”
“Tommy Docherty’s deliberately waterlogged wings against Barcelona in the 1960s springs to mind,” writes Carl Jepson.
@NickAmes82 didn't Stoke narrow the pitch for a game against Arsenal? And then won the game too, if I remember correctly.
— Cönor Whelan (@Conorwhelanire) October 29, 2018
That rings a bell. Delap era?
@NickAmes82 Graeme Souness once had the Rangers pitch changed in size between their opponent's practice session and the match. European tie, I think. Russian team?
— 🌼 Ye Little Hills (@yelittlehills) October 29, 2018
Good one. Keep them coming!
Exactly. pic.twitter.com/pdVNJf6Ass
— Daniel Storey (@danielstorey85) October 29, 2018
Decent snapshot of the job Pochettino has done at Spurs ...
Matt Burtz gives us the lowdown on some stateside skulduggery:
“Here in the US of A, groundskeepers of baseball stadiums have commonly adulterated the playing field to provide an advantage one way or the other. Other team has speedy runners? Water the dirt between the bases heavily so the paths are muddy. Your team likes to bunt? Water the dirt directly in front of home plate so the ball dies before reaching an infielder. Your team likes to chop the ball in front of the plate so it bounces high and the runner can beat the throw? *Don’t* water the dirt in front of home plate and let it bake in the hot sun so it resembles concrete!
“I think Spurs should embrace the opportunity to muck up the game. Three points is three points, after all; losing on a well-kept pitch to a good team is a moral victory at best.”
Of course football hasn’t been totally immune to such methods. John Beck used to legendarily like long grass down by the corner flags so that his wingers could chase the ball as it held up. Any other examples you can think of?
Found some footage from the pre-match warmup!
“This palaver over the pitch perplexed me,” puzzles David Hopkins. “When I was a kid I would go to the Baseball Ground which by late October was a brown diamond with a few tufts of grass in each corner. My dad claimed that canny Rams players of the past would lure unsuspecting opponents into the deepest mud knowing they’d get stuck.”
I love that. Why does nobody coach *that* anymore?
This is much more like it from Danny Michaux:
“As a Spurs supporter, beating City on this lame excuse of a pitch would be hilarious. Imagine Vincent Kompany slowly trudging off at the final whistle and getting caught in a boggy section, Pep’s fury in the post-match interview, the endless impotent bashing of keyboards on social media sites and comment sections across the nation and beyond calling for Spurs to be stripped of their points and fined. Doesn’t it fill your heart with hope that there is some magic left in the game?
“We’re going to get pumped though.”
Kaushik Prasad is off his head. It'd be tremendous if a bit of half eaten hot-dog were to deflect a last minute Spurs winner beyond Ederson
— Dead Callum (@getondeadcallum) October 29, 2018
It’d rival Darren Bent and the beach ball.
On to some football and here’s Ed Aarons on Maurico Pochettino’s sense of discontentment.
Been a funny start to the season for them, hasn’t it? As mentioned in the piece, their league form is fine – but only a few weeks ago we were worrying about them losing games hand over fist and being in a mini crisis. The Champions League campaign has certainly been unsatisfactory so far, and Pochettino’s biggest annoyance is clearly that the stadium business hasn’t been put to bed – thus continuing to weigh Spurs down. They’re churning results out without quite looking at their best at the moment. Can tonight bring the kind of season-defining performance that might cheer their manager up?
“As a Spurs supporter, I don’t ever wish to lose points but beating City on this lame excuse of a pitch would make me embarrassed, not elated with joy. A draw would be best,” writes Kaushik Prasad.
Whooooaaaa! Does everything in this ultra-serious Premier League of ours really have to be gleamingly splendrous all the time? I do take the indirect point that Spurs’ stadium situation has gone/is going very badly and that this is an unfortunate consequence of that.
I’ll talk about some actual football in a bit but look what we did for you back in 2016! A Joy of Six: Sporting Pitch Fiascos! Will tonight make seven?
Interesting snippet from the wires, reporting that the match officials have been doing their due diligence on the surface:
Parts of the pitch are lush and green, but there are large areas of worn brown turf, especially on each touchline, while the NFL logo is still visible in the centre circle.
Referee Kevin Friend and his fellow match officials walked around the pitch at around 6pm with a ball testing to see how it rolls.
“Wembley has come a long way from 1970 when domesticated equines tore up the pitch before the FA Cup final with the Horse of the Year Show,” notes Justin Kavanagh. “These days its Jaguars from Jacksonville and Philadelphian Eagles ruining the footie! Mind you, the Jaguars seemed to be only interested in prowling London’s nightclubs (running up a bar bill of $64,000, according to a Philly news report) and the droppings of eagles don’t seem too big a problem at Selhurst Park.”
The teams
Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris, Trippier, Sanchez, Alderweireld, Davies, Dier, Dembele,Sissoko, Lamela, Lucas Moura, Kane. Subs: Son, Winks, Walker-Peters, Alli, Gazzaniga, Eriksen, Aurier.
Man City: Ederson, Walker, Stones, Laporte, Mendy, Bernardo Silva, Fernandinho, Silva, Mahrez, Aguero, Sterling. Subs: Kompany, De Bruyne, Sane, Otamendi, Gabriel Jesus, Foden, Muric.
Referee: Kevin Friend
That’s interesting – Christian Eriksen and Kevin De Bruyne are both on the bench. Both have had their injury troubles. Is that a reaction from both managers to the pitch issue? Either way, it’s potentially a shame for the spectacle.
“Faded American football stripes on a torn-up Wembley turf for a Premier League match?” observes Peter Oh. “Oh the irony! Or should I say, the gridirony?”
The pitch doesn’t look great, does it, and the NFL logo in the middle tells a few stories. I have a question though. It’s not exactly going to be a quagmire, and 20 years ago nobody would have batted an eyelid – why aren’t things simply allowed to be a bit rubbish anymore?
Hello everyone
A Premier League weekend that has, for obvious reasons, been very difficult comes to an end tonight with a fixture that promises plenty of flourishes on the pitch.
In fact it’s funny I mentioned the pitch, isn’t it, because that’s stolen many of the headlines before Tottenham’s keenly awaited match against Manchester City. Wembley’s surface has come off decidedly second-best to yesterdays NFL game and hands are being wrung about just how technical Mauricio Pochettino and Pep Guardiola’s men will be able to get tonight. Are you wringing yours? Does this sort of thing actually worry you? Either way it’s added another storyline to a match that doesn’t really need much setting up: if Tottenham, who often do pretty well against Man City, can do something here then you sense we really do have a title race this year. If City cut loose, as they did here in April, you wonder whether they’re purring towards top gear and ready to pull away again. They’ll go top on goal difference if they win; should Spurs take the points, though, City will drop to fourth and the hosts will go third.
Plenty to get our teeth into then. Send me your tweets and emails – should be able to get through a fair few before kick-off, which is at 8pm UK time. Not midnight, even if it feels like that since the clocks went back.
