City showed how far they’ve come

> Pep’s side punish conqueror of last year

City’s spending and the depth of Guardiola’s coaching has taken them to a level where, despite recent stumbles, they can outplay almost any team in the country.

Watching Spurs get dominated and passed around for almost all of the first half, it was difficult to remember when this last happened to them at home. Remember how impenetrable White Hart Lane was in their final season there, and the 17 straight wins they left it with.

Even this season, in Wembley exile, Spurs had won seven straight before getting picked off by Juventus in their last game here, more than one month ago.

This is a team that wants the ball and the initiative in every game they play. Even Manchester United, Liverpool and Real Madrid have come to Wembley this season and been blown away by Pochettino’s great white machine.

And yet here Spurs could not get a foot in the game or a touch of the ball for the first 40 minutes. When did they last get shown up by their guests like this?

There will be a more important test for Spurs here against Manchester United this time next week, an FA Cup semifinal that will define far clearer how far Spurs have come.

United will not even try to cause any of the same problems as City either, will not dominate the ball or control the game. But the fact that City did this to Spurs, playing around them in the first half, holding them off in the second, in the most important game of their season, for the first time of the Guardiola tenure, shows why they are imminent champions. – The Independent