We pretty much hoped against hope and sometimes, it’s the hope that actually kills.
When I looked at the lineups for yesterday’s crunch clash between Tottenham and Manchester City, especially Tottenham’s, I was actually impressed. Ange Postecoglou went for some measure of control, deploying Pape Sarr, Rodrigo Bentancur and Pierre Hojberg at the heart of midfield, while trying to plug a big sized left back hole with Micky Van de Ven, allowing Radu Dragusin to make a rare appearance alongside Cristian Romero. Further up the pitch, James Maddison fielded in a false 9 role with Heung-Min Son and Brennan Johnson working through the flanks.
The side had the first opportunity of the night with Bentancur firing a left-footed drive that was saved by Ederson, but from that moment, it was all Manchester City with Phil Foden blasting a goal-bound effort that was saved by Gigi Vicario after a gaffe from Hojberg, and Kevin de Bruyne firing a sizzling hot effort that was saved by the Spurs goalie after Tottenham messed about trying to play from the back.
With Tottenham failing to take the initiative, Manchester City scored the first goal when some intricate passing play which was instigated by Foden saw Bernardo Silva feed KDB, whose drilled cut back evaded all the Spurs defenders and fell to Erling Haaland’s feet for a routine tap in. The Viking Chieftain barely had a sniff all game long, but he popped up in the right moment to score a vital goal for Manchester City.
The Tottenham gaffer summoned Dejan Kukusevski to the proceedings and he had a couple of efforts, but Ederson’s replacement, Stefan Ortega, was up to the challenge. The game was on a knife’s edge and delicately poised for the next goal to be the most important, and the movement arrived..
The usually reliable Manuel Akanji had a Skhodran Mustafi moment, which allowed Son, yes, Son the elite lethal finisher, to bear down on goal and was one on one with Ortega. Nine times out of 10, Son side foots the ball home, as we have seen this scenario time and time again against the likes of Newcastle, Crystal Palace, Luton, just to mention a few. But this time, the usually composed Son had a rush of blood to his head and he missed the big chance. 1-1 and the Goonersphere would have gone into delirium, but it was a missed effort and everyone connected with Arsenal was filled with despair.
To make things worse, Pedro Porro fouls the elusive Jeremy Doku in the box and the ref pointed to the spot. With Haaland ready to take the spot kick, there was an air of inevitability as he sent Vicario the wrong way to make it 2-0.
That was when I turned off my TV and focused on other important things in life.
Manchester City remains a juggernaut and Pep Guardiola has drilled this team to become behemoths especially at the business end of the season. It was always going to be an uphill task catching up, especially after that unfortunate result to Aston Villa, but that’s the reality of any team trying to challenge the defending champions for their crown.
Hey Tottenham, thanks for nothing.
Sayonara.
