Finally, the curse has been lifted. Manchester City are a magnificent team, the rightful champions of Europe and the world, but on that rectangular pitch in north London they were a mixture of hapless, uninteresting and comically inept.
Before tonight, they had played five games at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and lost all of them, without scoring a goal, although their xG was about 375. For 88 minutes, history rhymed until Nathan Ake scored a late winner, and the game was won in most un-City fashion.
Pep Guardiola was getting increasingly angry, so much so that he was fined for sarcastically applauding referee Paul Tierney in the second half of an FA Cup match.
I would have recognised some of the similar characteristics of previous matches in which City created chance after chance but could not change the outcome. An early goal was cancelled out by the slimmest of margins; Julian Alvarez, Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku squandered the best chances.
But if Guardiola has in the past encountered stubborn defensive units deliberately designed by Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo and Antonio Conte to frustrate him, this team of Ange Postecoglou never wanted to play that way.
Tottenham tried to play their own way but never managed to take control, and in the end their open game plan failed, albeit quite in the end, at a corner, when so much hard work had been done. City won 1-0 and the defending champions will be in the hat in the fifth round.
Without Yves Bissouma and Pape Matar Sarr, both of whom were at the African Cup of Nations, Tottenham’s midfield was made of mush and City played there with ease.
Alvarez and Phil Foden sometimes dropped into the hole to turn and drive at the Spurs defence, but Mateo Kovacic often carried the ball himself, dribbling past the weak defences of Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur on his way from one box to the other.
City almost managed a perfect start. After just five minutes they had the ball in the net after Oscar Bobb’s rebound from close range, but his left-footed half-volley was correctly adjudged offside and the miniature foul was somehow spotted by assistant referee Adrian Holmes.
Spurs experienced a rare sensation on their home pitch when they were on the back attack as City executed precise passing patterns around them. However, City struggled to find anything resembling a killer pass, and were too often saddled with the lack of quality from Jox Guardiola after he crept up the left touchline into a couple of dangerous positions.
In City’s best moments, Tottenham’s last-minute defending was outstanding. Destiny Udogie came back to steal the ball from Foden as he came into the box to guard the goal, and later Spurs’ other full-back, Pedro Porro, raced in front of Bobb’s low shot to block it, then shouted at the crowd like a boxing champion on the edge of the ropes.
When Tottenham occasionally broke forward on their own, often on counter-attacks when City were stretched, Guardiola was a joy in the background. Brennan Johnson and then Porro ran down the right in quick succession midway through the first half, but both failed to find the oncoming Richarlison with crosses.
City created their best chance early in the second half when Bobb played Alvarez in at the back post from the left. He took a touch, then fired over from ten yards, but again a Spurs defender, this time centre-back Micky van de Ven, was thrown into the fire.
From then on, the game became more tense, more fragmented. There was suddenly a sense of venom in the attacks. Kovačić was booked for a kick to the standing leg of Udogie, Udogie was booked for a kick to the ankle of Silva and a frustrated Guardiola was also yellow carded. The crowd became more emotionally involved, lifted from their seats by the slightest hint of a penalty or a suggestion of an incorrect flag by an assistant.
City were still the best, but Spurs were now starting to play the game. Timo Werner rarely drew attention to his existence when he broke away from Silva and outfoxed Johnson behind the City defence, but goalkeeper Stefan Ortega made good haste to thwart the winger’s attack.
With time running out, eyes began to turn to the Kopachkas for inspiration. Guardiola brought on De Bruyne and Doku. Postecoglou brought on Oliver Skipp and James Maddison, the latter of whom drew cheers from the Tottenham fans. It was his first appearance since 6 November and there was a sense of hope.
But it was City who had all the late chances. Silva missed a tempting half-volley that was 15 yards from goal but could only be tucked into the arms of Guglielmo Vicario. Moments later, Hojbjerg mentally gave way when he ran straight into Foden while dribbling in his own box. Foden passed to De Bruyne in space to break up the play for sure, but the Belgian somehow pulled his shot wide.
Doku had an even better chance, running one-on-one with Vicario in goal. His first touch was a bit heavy, allowing Porro to get close enough to put him off balance, but his shot was inaccurate and easily saved.
But Ake eventually did what the attacking stars couldn’t and cleared the ball from just one metre out, which missed. Spurs appealed for some sort of foul on Vicario, but VAR found nothing. At the end of the sixth match at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, City finally scored.
TOTTENHAM WERE clearly CHEATED by VAR, and below is evidence from a recent Premier League game with a similar incident to the one we saw at White Hart Lane, but the goal was overturned instead.
INCIDENT: With Man City winning 1-0, Manuel Akanji battles with goalkeeper Alisson Becker for a Julian Alvarez corner. Alisson claims he was fouled by a City defender as the ball fell to Ruben Dias, who scored. Referee Chris Kavanagh overturned the goal for a foul, but VAR agreed with him after watching it. Liverpool later equalised to draw 1-1.
DERMOT’S VERDICT: Correct decision
DERMOT: They say goalkeepers are over-protected, but you only have to get him slightly off balance and he loses all stability, he can’t catch the ball – he loses the ball and gets him off balance enough for a foul to be given.
Why has City’s goal at White Hart Lane not now been overturned after a similar incident happened against Liverpool and it was overturned? Although we all know that VAR is not consistent in the Premier League, it should at least be able to make the right decisions in such crucial, high-intensity matches as the FA Cup encounter between Tottenham and Man City.
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