James Maddison staked his claim for a starting spot Tottenham Hotspur’s midfield with two goals in his side’s 4-0 win over Manchester City.
The Englishman had started the season well for Tottenham, two assists in his first two Premier League games. It was a slightly deeper role for Maddison, but that didn’t hamper his creativity.
But Maddison’s bright start eventually faded away, and he eventually fell out of the starting XI. In the last two games before the international break, Maddison was given just 14 minutes.
Six of those minutes came against Ipswich Town, when Tottenham were trailing. It was a tough time for Maddison, and there was speculation surrounding his future as you’d expect with no club football for two weeks.
“Clearly, with the talent James has, I’d expect him to start all the games, and I’d expect him to finish more games than he is,” Ally McCoist told talkSPORT recently.
“So it’s a problem for James that he isn’t getting anything like the game time he should be. I don’t know whether the manager has a problem with him or doesn’t think he can last the 90 minutes.
“But it’d suggest that all is not well, or at least not 100 per cent well.”
Pape Matar Sarr was preferred in the Tottenham midfield to Maddison, joining Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski. But Bentancur ban has forced Ange Postecoglou into a reshuffle, and Maddison was a beneficiary.
When all the five-in-a-row talk revolved around Premier League titles nobody doubted Manchester City. When it turned to the possibility of five defeats in a row well, that seemed a little far-fetched.
Four was a new low for Pep Guardiola. But then he signed a new contract and the serenity of his extended presence just as the red half of the city went back to the drawing board seemed as if it would simply soothe away the ills.
Besides, it was Tottenham next. Doctor Tottenham will see you now, as people like to joke but then again, the good doctor does not have the same effect on Guardiola. He has had trouble with them before and there was trouble again.
Not only a fifth defeat in a row, a third in successive Premier League games, but the champions were exposed by Spurs, who were slightly fortunate not to concede but might have scored even more than they did.
James Maddison on his 28th birthday struck twice in the first half and Pedro Porro scored the decisive third, soon after the interval before Brennan Johnson completed the rout in stoppage time, at full stretch to turn in a cross by Timo Werner.
City and their supporters were stunned. And rivals will view this as their chance, a vulnerable point at which they can strike and wrest the Premier League from their grasp. Liverpool will stretch eight points clear if they win at Southampton on Sunday.
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