Match report
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Anyway, thanks all for your company and comments - bye, and shana tova to those celebrating.
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Full-time: Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Manchester City
What a performance from Spurs, and what a performance from every single player. They pressed with violence, attacked with verve, and defended with both. City may have been without De Bruyne, but Spurs were missing Dembele and Kane.
Talking of City, Guardiola got his team wrong and that defence just isn’t up to it. If other teams can get enough of the ball - a big if, granted - this won’t be its only chastening afternoon.
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90+4 min White Hart Lane unites to serenade Mauricio Pochettino, and rightly so - this is his win more than any single one of his players. He’s been perfect today.
90+3 min Wanyama is Gary Neville’s man of the match. Can’t argue with that.
The new @VictorWanyama song on the way back from Middlesborough yesterday 🍜 #COYS pic.twitter.com/MXKq9zz4Jg
— TottenhamAMF (@TottenhamAMF) September 25, 2016
90+2 min Lovely from Stones, who tricks his way into a passing position on the edge of the box and eventually the ball is worked into Aguero. But, swivelling, he can’t get enough on his shot, and it’s easily fielded by Lloris.
90 min There shall be four added minutes.
90 min Vertonghen and Alderweireld would make the finest door pairing of all-time. And again, Aguero wriggles some space, unleashing a drive that’s blocked after travelling barely a yard - on this occasion, its Vertonghen.
88 min Lovely from Sane, losing his man on the half-turn and finding Silva, who transferred to Aguero, just outside the box and dead centre. But he made the error of attempting to squeeze between Alderweireld and Vertonghen, Scylla and Charybdis, and was permitted no such thing.
87 min Change for City: Sane on, Sterling off.
85 min Change for Spurs: Delealli, the best player on the pitch “for me”, gives way to Georges-Kevin Nkoudou.
83 min City are in the ascendancy for the first time today, Zabaleta sliding a short pass into Sterling which he takes in his stride and sashays into the box. But from nowhere, a leg appears and robs him - I think it belongs to Alderweireld.
82 min Spurs are sitting in now, and Fernandinho slides a pass into the path of Iheanacho, again moving away from goal. He tries to wrap his left foot around the ball, but misses it altogether.
80 min But City are too good to completely count out, and Silva, through the middle, rolls left for Aguero outside him. He draws back his laces to shoot, and Vertonghen and Alderweireld both fling themselves into blocks - the latter manages some kind of contact, and Lloris pushes behind for a corner which comes to nowt.
79 min Spurs have relaxed a little - again - but every time City gather momentum, back comes the press.
78 min Bit of pressure fro City, but Spurs hold their high line and eventually Gundogan has to shoot from distance, blazing over the top.
77 min Iron Raheem “Bites yer legs” Sterling nails Danny Rose again, and again, escapes serious censure.
75 min Silva roams into space and slides a pass of typical vision between Vertonghen and Walker, ready for Iheanacho to run onto. The angle, though, is tricky and reducing, so all he can do it go low and hard and hope Lloris misses it - he does not.
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74 min On which point, I wonder what kind of game Guardiola envisaged, and how he thought he’d win it. My guess would be with quick breaks, but he just doesn’t have the defence to absorb the pressure that comes with that.
73 min I know he has the squad that he wants, but Pochettino has, er, in the parlance of our time, absolutely, er mugged Guardiola off today. Forcing him to match system with system is quite a compliment.
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72 min Change for Spurs: off goes Sissoko, who’s done a fine job; on comes Dier.
71 min There’s a pause in play as we see that Son tried to take the penalty off Lamela. That is not sensible behaviour.
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70 min Incidentally, this is a really, really good game. When the teams with new managers settle, this is going to be such a league.
70 min A goal for City now and we’re set for a serious finish, but it really doesn’t look likely.
68 min City are now playing a 4-4-2 diamond, with Silva behind Aguero and Iheanacho.
67 min Sterling is late on Rose and probably leaves half a foot in there, imparting instep to shin. Rose squeals and there’s a brief break as he receives treatment. That was another booking that wasn’t given as a booking.
66 min Iheanacho replaces Navas.
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65 min Bravo saves from Lamela!
Bravo dances up and down his line and Lamela’s effort is tame, hit at a convenient height and not in the corner - he goes left and pushes it away, actually pretty easily.
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64 min PENALTY TO SPURS!
Lovely from Spurs, Alli, Rose and Walker combining to reach the edge of the City box. Kolarov cleans out Walker obviously, but the ball bounces through to Alli, now in on goal, so Fernandinho nails him from behind.
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63 min It is tricky to fathom a route back into this match for City.
62 min Navas pulls wide and steps inside Walker, making an angle for a shot. He sends one in that’s not sure if it’s really a cross, and is curls beyond the back post and behind for a goalkick.
60 min A lull.
59 min What’s great about this Spurs side is how little different it seems to make who plays - the movement and pressing is the same regardless.
58 min Eight of this Spurs side started a Champions League game in Moscow on Tuesday night. This really is an absolutely monstrous effort; wonder if they’d have managed it with a Wednesday night game.
57 min City break, and Gundogan, zoning through centrefield, has Sterling ahead and to his right. But he overhits his pass and anguish is ensues.
56 min Rose nips the ball away from Sterling, who carries on with his intended tackle and raps his pal across the shins. He’s booked.
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54 min Change for City: Gundogan replaces Fernando. Wonder if Guardiola thinks he got his starting XI wrong.
53 min Rose gives away a free-kick in his corner, putting arms around Sterling as they chase a high ball - he avoids a second yellow but hands City an opportunity to put the ball into the box. Instead, Silva lifts it to the edge, where he’s hoping Fernandinho will stride onto it and deliver a stunningly stupendous volley that fizzes into the net and scorches a hole right through it. This is not what ultimately comes to pass.
50 min But suddenly, City spring forward, Fernando playing a clever ball into space behind the Spurs defence and Aguero nashing onto to. He’s got a sight of goal but left of centre, he opts to hit low and hard towards the near post, and his effort is close to Lloris that he can’t get behind it, relieved to see it hit the post and bounce away. If Aguero had hit that with his laces, not his instep, he’d have scored.
49 min Lovely reverse-ball from Eriksen that sends Son flickering away inside the box, down its left side. He opts to dribble when he might’ve shot, and his eventual effort is blocked clear. This is all Tottenham.
47 min Lovely from Wanyama, who shoulders Fernandinho as he bundles forward like an iron pillow, drilling a low shot that Bravo flicks around the post.
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46 min And immediately, Spurs resume, Kolarov put under pressure and duly ceding possession. The ball finds its way to Son, who immediately unfurls a left-footed curler from outside the box, which drifts just wide of the far post. Whereupon Gary Neville absolutely annihilates the quality and personality of the aforementioned “defender”.
46 min And off we go again.
Back come the players. Doesn’t look like City have made any changes.
“In winter weather, my friends and I would would play a game where one person boots a soccer ball as high as they can, and the others would have to trap the ball on our chests with shirts removed.” So emails Nick White - in Canada, an important detail. “Leather whacking a bare chest at that time of year sure stung, but seeing red welts on my friends was ample compensation.”
Yes, that’s the nub of this - others hating it more than you.
“You know who doesn’t impress me?” asks JR. “Claudio Bravo, that’s who.”
I’m not a fan either, but he needs time - and a better back-four.
Half-time emails: “We used to play that tackling game when young, too,” says Mike Cormack, “except we called it ‘Mick McCarthy tackles’ after the take-no-prisoners Celtic defender. Wonder what happened to him.”
Another game: a group of you in huddle, arms around shoulders, winner the last man standing.
Half-time: Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Manchester City
What a half this has been from Spurs. They attacked City with a beautiful viciousness, their pace and movement up front far too much for Kolarov, Stones, Otamendi and Zabaleta. Then they sat back, recuperated, and launched themselves at it again; City have a lot of work to do.
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45+1 min City have Spurs chasing at the back for the first time this afternoon. Lloris charges out to the right the edge of the box and fails to hold as he dives on the ball. Navas immediately lifts a cross to the far post, but Vertonghen is strong enough in the air to diver away from goal.
45 min There shall be one added minute.
44 min “Interesting word, trice,” reckons Mike MacKenzie.
“Word Origin and History for trice Expand. late 14c., ‘haul up and fasten with a rope’ (v.), from Middle Dutch trisen ‘hoist,’ from trise ‘pulley,’ of unknown origin. Hence at a tryse (mid-15c.) ‘in a very short time,’ literally ‘at a single pluck or pull.’
I expect Guardiola to be selling some defenders in a trice come January.”
Heh - yes, I was amazed he didn’t find himself at least one more in the summer. He doesn’t have the team to protect it as he did at Barcelona, when he could get away with picking Mascherano there.
42 min “Daniel,” emails Nick Smith, “don’t you know you’re supposed to be all snooty about the ‘over-rated’ Stevie MBE because;
- He passed the ball more than 20 yards and in a direction that wasn’t sideways, the show off!
- He wasn’t as mobile when he was 33 than when he was 23, the preening over-paid bastard!
- He fell on his arse once?
Also, I’d say there are more than 4 midfield positions he played during his career (defensive and offensive versions across the line) and he also played up front by himself on occasion.”
Not sure he was ever a lone striker, but it’s possible to appreciate him and be snooty towards him, I’d say. Though it didn’t make the most sense to complain about what he wasn’t given what he was.
39 min Phew. I’m out of breath just from typing. This is an amazing physical effort from Spurs, their clarity of thought in that context absolutely superb.
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GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Manchester City (Alli, 37)
This is another terrific Tottenham goal! A long thunk finds Alli outside the box, just left of centre, and he ducks inside as Zabaleta comes across, nudging the ball into Son’s path. But Alli continues running, and that opens the angle for Son to roll a delectable pass between Zabaleta and Kolarov, and the swept finish was beyond Bravo in a trice.
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33 min Alli escapes his man and feeds Son, so Otamendi piles over and does enough to tackle - but can only find Alli. So he ploughs through him because what else could he possibly do but plough through him, it’s not his fault, it’s physics, and does well to avoid a second yellow card. The free-kick comes to nothing.
31 min Aguero comes deep and runs at the heart of the Spurs defence, so Wanyama wanyamas into him from behind. He’s booked and that’s a free-kick, 20 yards out and just left of centre. Aguero will take it himself and he goes for precision rather than power, looking to sidefoot into the far bottom corner, but it’s easy enough for Lloris to push away.
29 min Spurs spring back into life, Kolarov dreaming of furry lawnmowers, pink ones, and plants made of cake. Eventually, the ball makes its way out to Son on the left, and then Lamela, who spanks an excellent low cross across the face of goal. But no one is there to convert.
28 min Silva, who has flitted into action, picks up the ball and moves through midfield, slotting a clever ball into Aguero on the right of the box. He does that thing with his bum where he works a turn and space in one movement, then shoots from behind a buttock sooner than seemed possible - he’s just wide.
26 min Spurs have slowed down and City are starting to pass and move - they fiddle a ball into Sterling, inside the box on its left side, and he slips Walker, then slips. Still, though, a warning.
24 min “Regards hurting your friends,” begins Jack Roe, “my little band of weirdos developed the practice of running towards the top of the slope in the school field and jumping, whereupon two of our friends would swing a school bag at each airborn leg, causing the jumper to tumble through the air and land in a crumpled heap at the bottom of said slope.”
Perfectly normal behaviour. How many seconds of deodorant could you take on your forearm?
22 min City can’t get out at the moment - Spurs are pressing them with such fury and ferocity, that their only option is to go backwards. They do, though, hump it forward and find a pass out to Kolarov down the left. His cross is a good one, too, low towards Aguero’s feet, and he looks to get there ahead of Vertonghen, knocking it around the corner and riding the inevitable foul - except Vertonghen is as quick as he is, getting a toe on the ball and seeing away the consequent penalty shouts. Brilliant, brilliant defending.
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21 min Eriksen steps up and unfurls a flat one past the side of the wall. He catches it lovely, as it were, and it flies just past the far post.
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20 min Lovely little Cruyff turn from Alli just outside the box, and with Otamendi galumphing into challenge, he sidesteps the ball to no one and accepts his doing. Free-kick, inside the D and right of centre, plus a booking....
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19 min Walker skirts around Sterling, who tries to trip him and misses; the game in microcosm, right there.
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18 min Spurs are showing the rest of the league exactly how to beat Manchester City: simply assemble a team of superb athletes with superb skill, an outrageous work ethic, and garnish with excellent manager. City have been found out, right enough.
16 min A long punt - I mean cultured pass - from Bravo finds Sterling. He’s got a yard on Walker and twinkles towards him, but can’t find a way past and Tottenham begin their assault anew.
15 min “Hmm. World-class. Quite right to wonder how one defines that,” muses Charles Antaki. “Presumably the tightest definition would be the interplanetary one. in which Agüero and 10 others would represent Earth against a visiting team of extra-terrestrials. But who’s to say that Agüero et al would be well suited agains their brand of football, which might involve tentacles and high-frequency radiation?”
Also, where is this game taking place? It it’s in space, you might want your Ian Ormondroids.
14 min City have barely had a kick thus far. Far be it from me to comment on Guardiola’s tactical nous, but Fernando is a sitter, not a lot of use against Spurs - the only way City can compete in midfield is to try and outpass them, and that requires Gundogan.
12 min Perhaps the best - or at least, nastiest,most thrilling performance - I’ve seen in the last few seasons was when Spurs took Everton apart in November 2014. They played with an unbelievable intensity that day, and they’re doing exactly that at the moment.
10 min And Spurs zoom forwards again, barracudas with sensible haircuts, and Son again canes it at Zabaleta, thrashing a shot at Bravo from a narrow angle.
GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Manchester City (Kolarov, own goal 9)
Somehow, this is still a wonderful goal, in its way! Spurs have started like wild men, and Wayaman surprises Otamendi, finding Lamela on the left. He then feeds Rose, who curves a delicious cross to the far post, where Kolarov, lost in the supermarket, allows the ball to play him, and it looops into the net!
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8 min This is frantic - franticer than Guardiola would like, I shouldn’t wonder. And on cue, City try to slow the game down, knocking it backwards and forwards across the back four.
7 min “Ruud Gullit,” tweets Gary Naylor, “had a spell when he was possibly the best centre-forward, Number 10, centre midfield and centre back in the world.”
Hmmm. Centre-forward is a stretch, but yep, could probably give you the others.
6 min That Stones slide minded me of a game we used to play as kids in the gym: you’d race up behind someone, slides tackle them from behind even though there was no ball, and watch them crumple on top of you. Feel free to send in your innovative ways of hurting your friends.
5 min Son, now on the left, skates around Zabaleta - you’d expect Spurs to play on him - and Stones hares across to slide in underneath him. He takes plenty of man, but also plenty of ball, and again, a corner is ceded, which comes to nothing.
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4 min City go close! What a game this is shaping up to be! City funnel the ball right, where Rose stands off Navas and allows him to slam a low, hard cross to the near post, where Silva tries to run it off the face of his foot into the far corner. He can’t quite manage it, and City settle for a corner, which coes to nowt.
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2 min Spurs appear to be playing a diamond, with Dele Alli at it’s apex (do diamonds have apexes?). Eriksen and Son form an unlikely striking partnership.
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1 min And Spurs are at it immediately, flying into City. Son and Eriksen prompt at inside-right and find Walker, who finds Son. Full of confidence, he megs Kolarov and lashes an instashot just over the bar. Great start!
1 min And off we go!
And it’s live! Let’s pay some bills! So, in the meantime, the venerable Ian Copestake has pointed out that my email was incorrectly entered. Thus, please get in touch at daniel.harris.casual@theguardian.com.
Here they come! The ball is deplinthed, the loud opera is booming, the tannoy reminds us of where the game is and who’s playing. It’s on!
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The players are tunnelled and tracksuittopped.
“In fairness to Pogba, and in no way wishing to riff on Man Utd’s current pain,” emails Ian Copestake riffing on Man United’s current pain, “his best position is as their no.1 shirt seller.”
If only his surname had more letters.
The other thing Carragher says is that Aguero is perhaps the only world-class player in the Premier League. However we define that, and if exclude goalkeepers, he’ll be delighted to learn that I agree with him.
Jamie Carragher reckons that Sergio Aguero is the best penalty-box player we’ve seen in the Premier League era. There are, in mine, two other candidates:
Rutgerus Johannes Martinus Van Nistelrooy who, for whatever reason, is usually omitted from such discussion.
And Luis Suarez who, though he gave Liverpool so much more, was still a predator.
Guardiola says Spurs play high and are aggressive; Pochettino says his players needs to play in their usual manner. Which is to say that neither is giving much away.
Meanwhile, here’s Paul Doyle setting the Spursing scene.
On Friday, Pep Guardiola said any team that had three Fernandinhos would win the league.
So, where does he figures in the list of players who’d get into their teams in all manner of positions? Steven Gerrard in his heyday was good for right-back, all four midfield positions and off the striker; Wayne Rooney can play in net; and perhaps Paul Pogba should just play everywhere, seeing as no one quite knows what to do with him.
Elsewhere, Manchester United are drawing 1-1 with Stoke; is it too absurd to say that if United can’t find a winner in the next five minutes or so, the title is already beyond them?
To paraphrase Darius Danesh, there’s a lot of respect in this ground; both managers have picked sides specifically to combat and restrict their opponents.
To start with Spurs, Wanyama’s more combative skills are preferred to to Dier’s more cultured ones, the plan, presumably, to protect the defence more thoroughly. But, given how many of their passing moves go through Dier, they might also find themselves under more pressure, unable to get out. Otherwise, Moussa Sissoko replaces Vincent Janssen.
As for City, Zabaleta continues at right-back, a move sure to interest Sissoko. But the most significant surprise is the omission of Gundogan. Perhaps he’s not yet deemed fit enough, especially given a game that, if nothing else, will be a physical battle. But given how well he’s started, and Guardiola’s attacking sensibility, the presence of Fernando is still a curious one. Otherwise, Navas replaces the suspended Nolito.
Ruff riders and slim slow sliders
Tottenham Hotspur (4-2-3-Son!): Lloris; Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose; Wanyama, Alli; Sissoko, Eriksen, Lamela; Son.
Subs: Vorm, Janssen, Nkoudou, Dier, Trippier, Winks, Davies.
Manchester City (what kind of animal doesn’t play 4-3-3): Bravo, Zabaleta, Otamendi, Stones, Kolarov; Fernando, Fernandinho, Silva; Navas, Aguero, Sterling.
Subs: Caballero, Sagna, Gundogan, Sane, Clichy, Iheanacho, Garcia.
The rime of the: Andre Marriner.
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Preamble
“Who am I?” is a question that unites us all, whatever oblivious, nihilistic misanthropy we affect in order to appear interesting. And we never quite get an answer to it either, the final verdict delivered in our absence once we’re powerless to make things better. So, what point to ponder of a Sunday afternoon, face covered in Doritos, self submerged in self-loathing, soul caked in velour. You’re welcome to the real football factories .
In football, on the other hand, we learn what’s what every time a team takes to Twitter the pitch, the very best displaying distinct, unique identities - teams like Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City. More or less, we know what they’re trying to do and how they’re trying to do it; most of the time, it works.
But this game is not most games, so will tell us plenty about both sides. Last season, Spurs missed as good a chance as they’ll ever get to win the league, then strengthened their squad rather than their first team in the summer, relying on organic improvement to sustain their next step. And, after a dodgy start, it’s beginning to look like a reasonable plan; if they can win today, the world will know that they’re for real.
City, meanwhile, though in the process of learning new methods and tactics, have contrived six consecutive victories. So, with significant improvement still expected, if they can win at White Hart Lane, that would represent appalling news for their title rivals; even at this early stage, it would be tricky to see how any might finish above them.
In short, we are going to be entertained.
Kick-off: 2.15pm BST
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