Manchester City hosted the game against suffering club Tottenham and lost in the extra time, for Harry Kane and Dejan Kulusevski decided to end the match in their favor.
The Premier League table standings have now changed course for Liverpool to close the distance between the table-toppers city, all thanks to Tottenham.
From an 11 points difference last week, to only 6 points deficit after the City’s loss, the Merseyside club has to be the happiest club after the entertaining duel last night.
The match was an absolute rollercoaster since City dominated Spurs on paper, but Conte set up the play in such a way that you wouldn’t have been able to predict their next move on the field
Goal Moments
4’⚽ (0-1): In just three passes, the ball travelled from Tottenham’s initial third to Man city’s Penalty area, with Harry Kane being the key pass provider near the half-line. He made a quick pass to Son and the Left-winger, with an unselfish pass to Dejan Kulusevski in order to knock Ederson out from the scene, witnessed a beautiful finish, when the ball swirled between Cancelo’s legs and into the net it landed.
33’⚽ (1-1): Raheem Sterling provided a ball in the Spurs’ penalty box, where de Bruyne had already made the run but Hugo Lloris beat him to it and punched the ball against the goal, Ilkay Gundogan, being at that position at the right time, proved out beneficial to City and in a matter of seconds, the game was neutral again.
59’⚽ (1-2): The South-Korean star, Son, made a run beside Ryan Sessegnon and picked up a gentle pass from him, scanned Harry Kane’s smart run and chipped the ball in his leg and it was a clinically simple finish that only some pure strikers can achieve, with enough composure and confidence.
Not only the finish, but his run was smart and attention-worthy too. Joao Cancelo was supposed to mark him, but he thought Harry was offside, Harry, on the other hand, knew what he was doing, leaving the City’s defense in complete awe of the moment.
90+2’⚽ (2-2): Kevin de Bruyne puts the ball in the penalty area, which went far left to be picked up by Bernardo and to find a potential cross for their hungry header merchants, but in the chaos, Cristian Romero blocked the ball with his hand leading to a clearance.
The game went on but City players kept appealing for the penalty check. Referee Anthony Taylor checked and awarded a penalty to Etihad homeowners, which was taken by Riyad Mahrez to make it 2-2 in an attempt to end the game on a neutral note once again, but the Spurs never signed up for this agreement.
90+5’⚽ (2-3): It’s the final minutes and City have lost all the tempo and rhythm, taking full advantage, Rodrigo Bentacur decides to play a Right-Wing pass to Dejan Kulusevski, who then beats Laporte in a 1v1 and serves the cross accurately on Harry Kane’s forehead, and there go Spurs, celebrating their inevitable victory.
Both the sides of the stands had completely obverse emotions. The home fans had some critics to lash out with and the away fans had their share of praise for their ‘not so finished’ squad.
Crazy how Premier League can change faces in a matter of minutes.
On-Paper Battle & Our Opinion
Statistically judging, Manchester City won by a mile. All they lacked was a pure striker figure to play Number 9 and give Bernardo and/or Sterling, some liberty to play the second striker/False 9.
They have been repeatedly suffering from this problem since Aguero has left. And instead of a striker, they put up a £100m cash on jack Grealish without even bothering to look for a probable mid-table striker who can solve their problem to a realistic extent.
21 shots and only 4 on target, with 11 away from the goal and 6 blocked by white shirts. Tottenham on the other hand took only 5 shots, Harry Kane took 3 of them, with only 1 going off the target.
These crazy stats show how desperately they need a finisher and we shouldn’t be surprised if this summer they sneak a move for Harry or Haaland, or maybe both. Who knows how much money oil can give you and not that City cares about financial fair-play anyways.
The Scene Summed Up
A Wonderful starting game for Dejan Kulusevski, before this he’s only been substituted by master Conte for a few ending minutes to give a little taste of tempo after he changed leagues from Juventus with his mate Rodrigo Betancur.
Manchester City has now lost both of their EPL fixtures against Tottenham. The previous one was the EPL opening game against Nuno’s Tottenham, getting thrashed by Heung-Min son in the 55′, losing 1-0.
It has been a rather phenomenal league run for City, losing only 3 games out of which Spurs are responsible for 2 of them and Crystal Palace for the other one.
After the last international break, some fans claimed the title race to be over, since City managed to climb 11 points taller than Liverpool in this tower of title dreams, but as time has passed, the difference is only 6 points, all thanks to Tottenham Hotspur.
Harry Kane 🤝 Heung-Min Son
Levelling the all-time Premier League record. 👊
📊 @KumhoTyreUK pic.twitter.com/518NdlRtaO
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) February 20, 2022
After the Gundogan’s goal, City became the fastest team to score 100 goals in all competitions in a season. And after Spurs’ second one, Kane and Son have equaled Chelsea’s Drogba and Lampard’s 36 goal involvements as a duo.
The game was a joy to watch after a series of bad ones for Tottenham. Fans and teams are now waiting for the title race to get interesting after this dramatic 90+7′ rollercoaster.
