After the final whistle, Ange Postecoglou walked over to the jubilant travelling Tottenham fans who had all remained within an otherwise near-empty Etihad Stadium.
He raised a fist towards them as they sang his name and then applauded them all for making the long, rain-swept and windy trip up to Manchester to sing their hearts out. He knew they had been rewarded for their efforts.
This was meant to be City’s big day but Spurs were the party poopers. There was a lavish ceremony on the pitch before the match for Rodri’s Ballon D’Or win and the excitement inside the stadium caused by Pep Guardiola’s contract extension was palpable.
Yet City and Guardiola have their Kryptonite and it is named Tottenham Hotspur. This was the most brutal takedown of the Manchester side by their north London tormentors yet.
To win 4-0 against the champions is something special. To do it in their own backyard where City have not lost once in all competitions across 52 matches and two years is even more remarkable. It was City’s worst home defeat in more than two decades and the first time Guardiola had lost a Premier League home game at all by a margin of four goals.
“When you lose 0-4 there’s nothing to say except to congratulate Tottenham,” admitted the Spaniard afterwards.
Spurs were without their first choice centre-backs, were missing six first team players in all and had a bench that featured five teenagers, one of them just 16 in Malachi Hardy and a 17-year-old in Callum Olusesi.
Yet it ended up being a day that was huge for Postecoglou and his side, although it must be built upon if it is to become the night we all look back to as the one when the Australian’s era truly kicked into gear.
It was the perfect night to demonstrate that his Spurs and his tactics can compete with the best and that it was away from home showed the players that their record on the road will improve because they will face few sterner tests of their credentials than the champions at the Etihad Stadium.
City could have scored goals – they had 23 shots – but they never felt as dangerous as Tottenham did, despite Guglielmo Vicario pulling off a handful of saves from their five efforts on target.
In contrast, Spurs sent seven of their nine shots on target and could have scored more than the four they did, with Ederson having to make top drawer saves to deny Son Heung-min and Dejan Kulusevski as well as pushing over a Dominic Solanke effort.
Tottenham’s goals were all right out of the Postecoglou playbook. The first featured a defender looking for a quick ball out from the back with Radu Dragusin finding the battling Kulusevski with a lofted pass down the right.
The Swede cut inside and curled a pinpoint ball on to the instep of the running birthday boy James Maddison to volley into the net just 13 minutes in to shock City after their bright and boisterous start to the game.
Seven minutes later and Maddison celebrated becoming 28 with a second goal. Spurs won the ball high up the pitch from a loose Josko Gvardiol pass and Maddison and Son played a great one-two, with the latter knocking a clever reverse ball which the midfielder ran on to and chipped over the onrushing Ederson.
Spurs had been in this position before at the Etihad, 2-0 up at the break, before Postecoglou’s time but with him at the helm they heeded his mantra and kept on pushing relentlessly rather than sitting back and hoping.
Just seven minutes into the second half, Kulusevski was involved again, dribbling away from his own area, nutmegging Ilkay Gundogan before playing a one-two with Son, and then curling a ball across to Solanke. The ever-running striker pulled the ball back to Pedro Porro, once on City’s books, who smashed it into the far corner.
That prompted a Mario Kart-inspired celebration in front of the delirious fans by the players, with a group of them constantly battling against each other on the Nintendo game on the way to matches.
Vicario was called into action a few times after that as Guardiola threw on the returning Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish but it was the visitors who wrapped up a complete performance in added time with a fourth goal as three of Postecoglou’s substitutes combined.
Lucas Bergvall got a foot to a Grealish pass which directed it to Timo Werner and the German raced down the left flank past the tired Kyle Walker and pulled the ball expertly across the six-yard box for Brennan Johnson to slide home.
Winger to winger it was another Postecoglou goal to seal a thrashing that left the City players and their fans shocked.
Plenty of praise must go in the direction of Postecoglou. His team played his way and they humbled the champions.
They did so with his tactical tweaks, with Maddison restored to the line-up to cause chaos with his twists, turns and movement and Kulusevski put back on the wing to cause havoc for City’s man-to-man marking.
Both full-backs spent less time in the inverted positions, leaving those areas for Maddison and Pape Matar Sarr to profit from and it all worked a treat. That three of his substitutes combined for the final goal was the cherry on the cake.
“I thought it was going to be important for us [getting the wingers heavily involved]. We knew we were going to have to defend at different times and with Deki and Sonny out there, I thought if we could get the ball to them really early, City are pretty aggressive with their approach,” explained Postecoglou.
“They like to defend almost man on man because they’ve got outstanding defenders who like to defend man on man, but I think with Dom there as well, we like that sort of set-up where we can the ball to them earlier.
“That’s the theory. The practice isn’t always that easy because they put pressure on you and I thought our build-up play today, at times we got a little bit stuck, especially in the second half, but we just persisted and persisted in trying to hit those areas that we needed to.
“Every time we did it in the second half, we looked really threatening and we obviously scored some good goals from it. For us again, it’s development as a team, which is about trying to within the context of our football find solutions that exist, depending on the opponent.”
Maddison played like a man with a point to prove and he did it perfectly with not only the two superb goals but a performance that contained two dribbles, two tackles, one interception, two clearances and one City shot blocked. He also had an 88.9% pass success rate in the middle of the park.
His confidence visibly grew after this first goal and after the final whistle, the birthday boy and his head coach shared a hug on the pitch with Maddison grinning from ear to ear at whatever the Australian said to him.
“I thought he was really good for us earlier in the season and then he had a couple of flat games but I think the whole team has. I also believe there’s more in Madders and I think that’s on me. I always say, that’s my role as a manager,” Postecoglou told the media after the game.
“If I’m not getting a maximum amount out of the players, the team against Ipswich, or individuals, then it’s about sort of some self reflection of ‘well, ok, can I do something different with them?’.
“But the thing about Madders was he obviously didn’t go away on international duty. He had two weeks with us and the coaches worked really hard with him and he was working really hard at training and I could just see and said he was ready for a big game. He hasn’t lowered his ambitions or his kind of levels of the kind of player he wants to be and it’s about us giving him that platform and it wasn’t just his goals today.
“I thought he was really important for us in the build-up because he was always looking for it in tight areas and, and defensively, he worked really hard. So, yeah, credit to him. Like I said, I still think he’s had a decent season, but it’s like us as a team, we want to be more than that, we want to be more than just a decent team.”
Maddison now has eight goal involvements in 12 Premier League games. He made it clear what he thought of his benching in recent games in the competition and he knows he has set the standard for himself with this performance.
“I’ve been alright. I’m never happy with not playing,” the 28-year-old admitted to Sky Sports. “The gaffer took me out for a tactical reason because he wanted Sarr and Kulusevski – two really fit lads who can really go and press for 90 minutes – for a couple of games.
“I’ve got a lot of self belief and if I go through tough spells of having two games out I’m at the age now where I’m able to go and show you that this team is much better with me in it.
“That is the mindset – not in an arrogant, big-headed way – just the mindset of myself and that self belief. That’s the only way you get out of those little ruts.
“I’ve actually been really happy with my form this season, been a couple games when I haven’t maybe been at the level, but I watch all the games back and I know when I’m not playing at the level.
“There’s been a couple which in football, it happens, but I’m really happy and proud I bounced back, back in today for a big game, really showed my leadership and the manager will be happy with that so I am.”
