Stones says players were distracted by gridiron lines at Wembley

ON a difficult night for both teams at a dishevelled Wembley, four of the 20 outfield players for City and Tottenham found the game more chastening than the rest.

Kieran Trippier’s error enabled Raheem Sterling to nip in and set up the only goal of the game, while scorer Riyad Mahrez and Bernardo Silva found regular joy down Danny Rose’s left side.

From a purple-and-orange perspective, Benjamin Mendy had arguably his worst game in City colours and Kyle Walker fared little better, his chaotic slice behind for a corner in the dying moments symptomatic of the erosion of control that crushed any quality the game had.

That four of the best fullbacks in the league struggled so much was one of the strangest parts of a thoroughly odd occasion – but John Stones may have gone a long way to explaining why.

City did their best ahead of the match to prepare for a surface the City defender dubbed ‘terrible’, focusing on when they would have to take fewer risks and curb their passing game.

But if they had planned for a dodgy bounce, the fact that the NFL markings were still visible caused a lot of frustration and confusion.

“I think the most frustrating thing for us was the lines.

“All the white lines on the pitch threw you off at times and that was something that frustrated us quite a lot.”