Football: troubles for Man City on and off the pitch
Spurs went into their home match against Manchester City “desperate for something to spark their season”, said David Hytner in The Guardian. Fifth in the Premier League table, Antonio Conte’s side had given fans little to cheer in recent months. But on Sunday, all that changed with a moraleboosting 1-0 victory against Pep Guardiola’s “curiously off-colour” City. The difference between the two teams was Harry Kane, whose 15th-minute strike took him past the long-standing goal-scoring record for Tottenham held by Jimmy Greaves. Kane’s goal for Spurs was one Arsenal also relished. It meant that the Gunners – after their shock loss to Everton the previous day – would still have a fivepoint lead over City at the top of the Premier League.
For Man City, this was the latest in a string of poor results, said Henry Winter in The Times. Instead of “going for the jugular”, City played over-elaborate football. Their new striker, Erling Haaland, who began the season “looking like a player from another planet”, has now become something of a “stranger to his teammates”.
But the very next day, a story broke that could make City’s travails on the pitch seem irrelevant, said James Ducker and Tom Morgan in The Daily Telegraph. In what could prove “one of the biggest scandals in English football history”, it emerged that the Premier League has charged City with more than 100 alleged breaches of financial regulations over the past 14 seasons. Among them are claims that the club used fake sponsorship deals to conceal funding from its owners and created a secret shadow contract for former manager Roberto Mancini, said Martyn Ziegler in The Times. If the charges are proved, possible sanctions range from fines and points deductions to expulsion from the Premier League.