PEP PUNISHES SORRY SPURS
Pochettino is outclassed as sizzling City cruise to their 16th consecutive league win
NOW they have all tried and now they have all failed, those other five Premier League heavyweights who purport to chase the title.
The Premier League prides itself on its claims of a competitive competition – boasting six teams which could genuinely contend for the top spot, unlike many other of the elite European leagues where it was often all over by Christmas.
Tottenham seemed to be the only hope for a real dogfight after Manchester United meekly surrendered last Sunday. After all, last season it was Mauricio Pochettino who halted the initial Pep Guardiola bandwagon and such was the jolt in the road that City never really got going again.
And with the genius that is David Silva missing this game, hopes stirred of a contest. The more ambitious dreamed of a title race re-opened, though that might have been fanciful.
By the end, though, as City stroked the ball around cutting swathes through a Tottenham team which had never truly been allowed a foothold in the game, it all seemed a little foolish. City simply cruised towards a new record 16th consecutive win.
The final humiliation for Spurs was a hopeful Bernardo Silva ball in the 89th minute which Eric Dier missed and Raheem Sterling chased. Hugo Lloris, spooked by Sterling, allowed the ball through his legs, meaning Sterling could simply run it into the net, a little embarrassed at the ease of it all.
There was a footnote written by Christian Eriksen who, in time added on, wriggled through City’s defence to score. But it was irrelevant. Tottenham had been comprehensively beaten. Kevin de Bruyne and Leroy Sane had been superb and Ilkay Gundogan had made light of Silva’s absence.
Tottenham, who are nothing if not on the front-foot harrying opponents, started cautiously. They even appeared to drop off City. Perhaps they just could not get the ball. But it was more than that. When they did have it, they were uncharacteristically sloppy.
Kieran Trippier, Dele Alli, Lloris and Danny Rose were all responsible for misplaced passes, skewed clearances or over-hit crosses in that opening half. There was none of the crispness and intensity you associate with Spurs.
City, by contrast, were quite themselves, with Sane seemingly too quick and too good for Trippier. What would have been more galling for Pochettino was that, when City took the lead, it was not a counter attack which was impossible to defend, or a slick passing move which would have left any team bedazzled.
No, a simple corner routine did for Tottenham in the 14th minute, with Sane delivering and Gundogan the unmarked midfield runner heading home. Life at the Etihad is difficult enough; conceding in that fashion makes it nigh on impossible.
There should have been more but for Lloris, who parried Sergio Aguero’s strike in the 24th minute after a lovely through ball from De Bruyne. Sterling hit the rebound over. Lloris had to push away a close-range shot from Gundogan in the 27th minute and then plucked the ball from the feet of Sane as the German raced through five minutes later. Aguero then shot just wide in the 34th minute.
Tottenham simply could not make an impact on the game. Nicolas Otamendi managed to do so, with a boot to Harry Kane’s head. Kane did manage a shot in the 35th minute. But in reality City’s stars were shining, while Kane, Eriksen and Alli saw their abilities dulled.
Tottenham, however, did start the second half with more intent. Otamendi had to clear when Harry Winks, Eriksen and Kane combined and Son Heung-min was poorly served by Kane’s over-hit pass.
When Trippier sprinted past Fabian Delph in the 51st minute and earned a free-kick, it was the first time that Tottenham had managed to expose one of the obvious weaknesses in City’s back four. Though City cleared the free-kick, fresh hope was growing for Spurs.
Kane struck a shot from 20 yards which Ederson did well to push wide and Tottenham had shown more attacking ambition in the opening 10 minutes of the second half than they had in the entire first half.
City were certainly forced to take a step back but it was not as if they ceased to threaten. When Gabriel Jesus replaced Aguero in the 55th minute, he almost scored with his first touch; Dier’s lunging tackle and Lloris’s quick move off the line just denying him the touch he required.
And it was City who missed the chance of the half in the 62nd minute. Sane advanced at bewildering speed and beat Trippier. His shot was superbly parried by Lloris but fell to Sterling, three yards out. Somehow he lifted it over the bar. No matter. In the 70th minute, having just been felled by Alli with a challenge which incensed Guardiola, De Bruyne made sure of the win.
This time it was the counter attack which undid Spurs, three touches from their box to Gundogan, who delivered one of those sumptuous passes on which De Bruyne thrives. He sprinted away, clean through and, though Lloris could get a hand to his fierce shot, he could not stop it doubling City’s lead.
They should have gone 3-0 up when Jan Vertonghen felled De Bruyne in the box in the 75th minute but Jesus hit his penalty against the post and Sterling lifted the rebound over.
Sterling would, however, get his goal finally just five minutes later, tapping in from close range after De Bruyne, Gundogan and Sane had picked apart Tottenham’s defence and delivered the ball into his path to steer home. His second simply rubbed salt into the wound.