Tottenham vs Man City: Spurs have built a new home and on this evidence they have already made it their own
This was Spurs’ best performance in months, probably since their 6-2 demolition of Everton at Goodison Park just before Christmas
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Your support makes all the difference.Son Heung-min was vindicated, in more ways than one.
Not just because he scored the winning goal here, the third goal scored in this stadium, even more important than the first one against Crystal Palace last Wednesday. The goal that sent Spurs halfway to the Champions League semi-finals, and nearly blew the £20m metal and glass roof off the stadium.
But Son was vindicated too for his prediction before the game that the stadium would make more of a difference than Manchester City might realise. Son said at his press conference on Monday afternoon that Spurs finally ending their two-year exile was a transformative moment, and that there is a fundamental difference between a team that has a home and a team that does not. “Maybe the City players don’t realise because they always play at home, but we’ve nearly two years away from our home stadium,” he said. “We can show them tomorrow night the difference between Wembley and our new stadium.”
That is exactly what Spurs did.
This was Spurs’ best performance in months, probably since their 6-2 demolition of Everton at Goodison Park just before Christmas. Ever since then Spurs have looked leggy and tired, run into the ground by their schedule, in desperate need of rejuvenation in the transfer market. That run of one point from five league games just before the move felt as if it had been in the post for months.
Spurs have been relying on this new stadium to give them new energy, to get them back to the level that they missed for the last few months. There was reasonable scepticism about this magical thinking, even after the 2-0 defeat of Crystal Palace that in truth was not very much better than their recent performances. But here all that optimism became real.
Because this was a performance, especially in the first half, packed with all of the intensity, energy and drive that Spurs looked to have lost in 2019. They tore into City and knocked them off their stride, never letting them get their passing going, especially in the testy first hour. Even though the goal did not arrive until the end of the game, it had been earned by how well they played in the first half.
Especially impressive were Harry Winks and Moussa Sissoko in the middle of midfield, the two men who have risen to the challenge of having the whole Spurs team built around them. Winks had not started for more than a month before last night, struggling with a hip injury due to the heavy schedule. But here he was back to his scurrying industrious best, nicking the ball off David Silva, never letting City settle. Pochettino was delighted with both of them.
“In the last few years, Sissoko is a player who has given a lot of things to us, I am so happy with him,” Pochettino said. “Of course after his injury Harry Winks is again giving a lot of things to the team, I am happy of course, but I am happy with all the performances of all the players. The spirit today was massive, with a fantastic help from the fans, the stadium was unbelievable, amazing. To play here, to work here, we are so lucky.”
Of course it was not a perfect night for Spurs, because they lost Harry Kane to an ankle ligament injury which at the very least makes him a doubt for the second leg and the Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium later this month. In that sense it may well be a pyrrhic victory, one that costs so much it means they lose the war. Even at the end of the night Pochettino predicted that City are still favourites to go through. Pep Guardiola was strikingly positive in his post-match press conference, delighting in what he described as an “incredible performance” from his team. “We concede absolutely few, we create chances more than the penalty, we were right there, we controlled the game,” Guardiola insisted. “Honestly, when we do not play good, I am the guy who says we were not good, but I don’t have that feeling.”
Maybe, maybe not, but even the fact that Kane might miss next Wednesday need not be fatal for Spurs. The evidence of the last few months is that while Kane is obviously Spurs’ best player, they have achieved better results without him than with him. One theory in the dressing room is that the players were pushing themselves to the limit in his absence, and then subconsciously dropped their level as soon as Kane came back. Spurs will struggle without him, of course, but if those players can make that extra push without their captain at the Etihad next week, that could be an extra source of energy for them. Just like the stadium was for them last night
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