Live Spurs tear Man City to shreds as Guardiola’s team lurch towards crisis

Live Spurs tear Man City to shreds as Guardiola’s team lurch towards crisis

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Live Spurs tear Man City to shreds as Guardiola’s team lurch towards crisis

Key moments

23 November 2024 • 7:55pm

90+4 min: 0-4

Goal! Johnson completes astonishing rout

53 min: 0-3

Goal! Porro adds to City’s misery

HT: 0-2

Kulusevski inspires Spurs

20 min: 0-2

Goal! Maddison scores another beauty

13 min: 0-1

Goal! Maddison stuns City

Pedro Porro of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates scoring his team’s third goal

Porro scored the visitors’ third, before a fourth was added in extra time Credit: Getty Images/Carl Recine

A government has gone, a new king has been crowned, and England have crammed in two tournament disappointments since Manchester City last lost at home, although after more than two years the moment has come again and this time it feels less like a great anomaly.

The wobble has become a slump, and now is lurching towards crisis for Pep Guardiola’s team. Their fifth straight defeat in all competitions was not even close. They have injuries, but they never looked like winning this game once Erling Haaland had missed a fourth-minute chance and Tottenham picked them off expertly with two James Maddison first-half goals supplemented by two more after the break.

City, for their part, looked tired and uncertain. The game was bossed from an attacking point of view by a mesmerising performance from Dejan Kulusevski who seemed to be largely unplayable from the point of view of the City defence. He skipped away from them to help to create the third for Pedro Porro, and from then Guardiola’s players looked hollowed out. There was no intensity to their passing. No bite to their great press. One assumes that it will change at some point. Important players will come back to form, strong words will be had. But for all of them this is uncharted territory.

Guardiola stared out from under Storm Bert’s leaden skies at the worst run of his epic coaching career. After Feyenoord on Tuesday it is Liverpool at Anfield next Sunday. There was, inevitably, from the away support the old taunt about being sacked in the morning. With fewer injuries and some more confident finishing this might have been different, but then City have weathered similar problems in the past and come back just as formidable. Perhaps they will again with their manager newly pledged to their future, but so many players are struggling.

Not least Kyle Walker and Josko Gvardiol in the first half. John Stones, back in the team, came off at half-time. Jack Grealish and Kevin De Bruyne came on in the second half and although there was a spell of City pressure on Spurs at the end it was never overwhelming. In the third minute of time added on at the end, Walker was left far behind by the pace of Timo Werner who crossed for fellow substitute Brennan Johnson to get the fourth.

Spurs came to Manchester with plenty of problems of their own and delivered a performance that did their manager Ange Postecoglou and his staff great credit. They probed City in their weakest spots down the flanks and attacked fast on the turnovers. Maddison would likely not have started had Rodrigo Bentancur not been hit with an extensive Football Association ban. He ended the game as captain before his late substitution. The second choice defence was excellent.

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Rob Smyth

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23 November 2024 • 7:37pm

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Live Spurs tear Man City to shreds as Guardiola’s team lurch towards crisis

Live Spurs tear Man City to shreds as Guardiola’s team lurch towards crisis

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