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MOTD: Manchester City 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur

By on February 14, 2016

Confidence is contagious on the football pitch but paralyzing in its absence. A year ago, a visit to Manchester City would have been a daunting prospect for Tottenham Hotspur; today, they anticipated their trip to the Etihad as an opportunity to take one step closer towards Leicester City at the top of the table.  With their milestone 2-1 win over City, Mauricio Pochettino’s men are no longer looking behind their backs, they’re dreaming of the Premier League title ahead, pulling themselves within two points of Leicester.  Christian Eriksen’s late winner on his birthday left City for the dead, four points behind Spurs and six points adrift from the top of the table.

Whereas Tottenham are flying high, City have been weighed down by the burden of expectations.  The Sky Blues would have to make history to win the title with the seven league defeats that already mark their record; more damning is the statistic that they’ve won just one of their ten matches against the current top eight this season.  This was their fourth home loss of the season, more than they had in Pellegrini’s first two seasons combined, per the BBC.

The Chilean manager blasted referee Mark Clattenburg’s penalty call for Tottenham’s opener, which proved decisive in an otherwise tight match.  Danny Rose’s cross undeniably hit Raheem Sterling’s elbow, but the Englishman had his back turned to the ball and very little time to react.  If Pellegrini’s comments appeared to be more of a diversion than the real source of his own frustration, Pochettino would point to Tottenham’s lethality and vigor.

“The supporters are right to dream of the title,” said the Argentine manager, per The Guardian. “They showed big support from the beginning of the season and I say thank you to them. It is important for our supporters to believe.”

“Before the game people [said] it was a big test for us and it is important to show we can win. It is important to tell you that we are the youngest squad in the Premier League. It is important to start to feel that you can win in a stadium like Manchester City’s against a big, big team and you can win.”

This was Tottenham’s fifth consecutive league victory, and their title campaign is gaining momentum.  Their youthful, exuberant side contained six Englishman for a brief period after Tom Carroll’s substitution in the seventy-second minute and although City threatened to take all the points after Kelechi Iheanacho’s equalizer, Eriksen capitalized on Yaya Toure’s mistake to seal the win for Spurs.

It was perhaps an overly cautious first-half and Tottenham’s only chance of note came when Eriksen saw his twenty-five yard effort blocked by Joe Hart near the half hour mark.  It was Kane’s penalty, coolly stroked down the middle after Clattenburg’s controversial decision, that opened up the match and left Pellegrini fuming.

“It was the key moment that decided the game, before that they did not shoot towards our goal and did not have any chances,” Pellegrini seethed.  “We took the risks, the spirit of the team was good but it was not enough. Unfortunately for us it was the same referee – Clattenburg – as we lost against Tottenham in the first round with two goals offside. It was decisive for the game. I don’t have nothing more to say.”

The goal did spark City, who bristled back to life and Toure curled a free-kick onto the bar just a few minutes later.  On seventy-three minutes, Gael Clichy combined well with David Silva down the left and the former drove a low cross into the box, where Iheanacho smacked a crisp effort right into the top corner.

Yet Eriksen pulled Tottenham back in front ten minutes later, when Erik Lamela broke down the middle after Toure lost the ball and slipped Eriksen in down the right channel.  The Dane took a touch back into the middle and side-footed a lovely finish into the bottom right corner to take Tottenham unbeaten in twelve away league games — their longest streak since the mid-eighties.

Homepage photo credit: Erik Drost, via Flickr

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.