A breathtaking turnaround at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium provided one of the most compelling Premier League narratives of the 2025-26 season on 1 February 2026, as the Tottenham Vs Man City lineups were confirmed for Matchweek 24 in north London.
Manchester City arrived at the ground in second place on 46 points, four behind league leaders Arsenal, while Tottenham sat 14th with 28 points, their European ambitions fading under manager Thomas Frank amid a severe injury crisis that had stripped the squad of eight first-team players.
Tottenham Vs Man City Lineups Confirmed Ahead Of North London Fixture
Thomas Frank made four changes from the side that had won at Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League in midweek, recalling Dominic Solanke to lead the attack and reinstating Conor Gallagher and Yves Bissouma to the midfield after the pair were ineligible for European competition.
Radu Dragusin made his first start since sustaining a knee injury nearly twelve months earlier, while the absences of James Maddison, Richarlison, Dejan Kulusevski, Mohammed Kudus and Pedro Porro underlined the scale of Spurs’ injury problems heading into the fixture.
Guardiola named Marc Guéhi and Antoine Semenyo among his starters, selecting a 4-1-3-2 system that prioritised central overloads and possession retention against a Spurs side expected to operate on the counter-attack.
Tottenham Hotspur Starting XI (3-4-2-1)
| # | Player | Position |
|---|---|---|
| GK | Guglielmo Vicario | Goalkeeper |
| CB | Radu Dragusin | Centre Back |
| CB | Cristian Romero (c) | Centre Back |
| CB | Joao Palhinha | Centre Back |
| RWB | Archie Gray | Right Wing Back |
| CM | Conor Gallagher | Central Midfield |
| CM | Yves Bissouma | Central Midfield |
| LWB | Destiny Udogie | Left Wing Back |
| SS | Randal Kolo Muani | Second Striker |
| SS | Xavi Simons | Second Striker |
| ST | Dominic Solanke | Striker |
Manchester City Starting XI (4-1-3-2)
| # | Player | Position |
|---|---|---|
| GK | Gianluigi Donnarumma | Goalkeeper |
| RB | Matheus Nunes | Right Back |
| CB | Abdukodir Khusanov | Centre Back |
| CB | Marc Guéhi | Centre Back |
| LB | Rayan Aït-Nouri | Left Back |
| DM | Rodri | Defensive Mid |
| CM | Bernardo Silva (c) | Central Midfield |
| CM | Nico O’Reilly | Central Midfield |
| CM | Rayan Cherki | Central Midfield |
| ST | Antoine Semenyo | Striker |
| ST | Erling Haaland | Striker |
Substitutions
| Team | Off | On | Minute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tottenham | Kolo Muani | Wilson Odobert | 59′ |
| Tottenham | Xavi Simons | Timo Tel | 72′ |
| Tottenham | Dominic Solanke | Jun’ai Byfield | 80′ |
| Man City | Bernardo Silva | Phil Foden | 65′ |
| Man City | Nico O’Reilly | Tijjani Reijnders | 74′ |
| Man City | Rayan Cherki | Omar Marmoush | 74′ |
| Man City | Semenyo | Nico González | 82′ |
Unused Substitutes
Tottenham: Kinsky, Sarr, Souza, Olusesi, Kyerematen, Rowswell
Man City: Trafford, Aké, McAidoo, Alleyne, Lewis
Bookings
| Player | Team | Card | Minute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gallagher | Tottenham | Yellow | 38′ |
| O’Reilly | Man City | Yellow | 21′ |
| Haaland | Man City | Yellow | 45+3′ |
| Reijnders | Man City | Yellow | 81′ |
| González | Man City | Yellow | 88′ |
City Squander Two-Goal Lead In Dramatic Second Half
Manchester City made a lightning start, with Rayan Cherki opening the scoring in the 11th minute following a swift counter-attack in which Erling Haaland played a key role in the build-up, before Antoine Semenyo doubled the advantage with a composed finish assisted by Bernardo Silva just before half-time.
City had controlled the first half comprehensively, limiting Spurs to almost nothing in the final third while creating a succession of good chances that should have extended their advantage further before the interval, leaving Guardiola’s men in an apparently commanding position.
The second half produced a remarkable transformation, with Dominic Solanke pulling one back for the hosts in the 53rd minute in circumstances that generated considerable controversy, with City players protesting vehemently to referee Robert Jones before the goal was allowed to stand.
Solanke then completed the comeback in the 70th minute with a genuinely outstanding individual goal that demonstrated exactly the quality Tottenham had been lacking in the weeks prior to the fixture, silencing the away end and lifting a crowd that had been subdued throughout the opening period.
Match Statistics
| Stat | Tottenham | Man City |
|---|---|---|
| Possession | ~40% | ~60% |
| Shots on Target | 5 | 4 |
| Total Shots | 10 | 11 |
| Yellow Cards | 1 | 4 |
| Corners | 4 | 7 |
| Attendance | 61,337 | — |
| Referee | Robert Jones | — |
Goal Timeline
| Time | Player | Team | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11′ | Rayan Cherki | Man City | Open Play |
| 44′ | Antoine Semenyo | Man City | Open Play |
| 53′ | Dominic Solanke | Tottenham | Open Play |
| 70′ | Dominic Solanke | Tottenham | Open Play |
Tottenham Vs Man City Lineups Reflected Frank’s Tactical Pragmatism
The 2-2 draw extended City’s winless run at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in recent seasons, continuing a trend that Guardiola has found uniquely difficult to resolve, with Spurs’ compact defensive shape and quick transition play repeatedly causing problems for a City side that dominated possession without ever truly killing off the contest.
Frank’s decision to persist with a three-centre-back system paid dividends in the second half as the additional central cover helped withstand City’s late pressure, while the tactical shifts brought by the substitutions of Odobert and Tel provided Spurs with the attacking impetus required to claw back the deficit.
The result boosted Arsenal’s title challenge considerably, with the draw leaving City four points behind the Gunners having played the same number of league games, while Tottenham’s single point did little to alleviate the pressure building around Frank’s tenure on the back of five consecutive winless Premier League outings.
