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Manchester City stretched their winning streak in the Premier League to a record 16 games as they strolled past Tottenham at the Etihad Stadium. Comeback man Ilkay Gundogan opened the scoring in the first half amidst some terrible marking by Spurs while defending a corner.
Tottenham briefly controlled the second half before Kevin de Bruyne restored City’s control on proceedings with a brilliant finish from a counter-attack. City kept improving after that thanks to their slick movement and were rewarded with Raheem Sterling’s late double, despite Gabriel Jesus missing a penalty.
Pep Guardiola’s side are now 14 points clear at the top of the Premier League and seem unstoppable in their quest for Premier League glory.
Here are the player ratings:
Manchester City
Ederson - 7
Ederson made an excellent save to deny a fierce Harry Kane shot from finding the net. He didn’t have much to do post that.
Kyle Walker – 7.5
Walker made a number of galloping runs down the flank and provided ample support for Sterling in attack.
Nicolas Otamendi – 7
Otemendi kept stifled Harry Kane and hardly allowed the striker to drive into the box and create space. Was composed on the ball as well.
Eliaquim Mangala – 7
Mangala had a solid game in the absence of club captain Vincent Kompany, shutting out Christian Eriksen and Son Heung-min who were making approaches, however rarely in the game, from the wide areas into the box.
Fabian Delph – 7
Delph was defensively disciplined, keeping the incoming runs of Son and Alli in check. He didn’t need to go forward thanks to Sane’s world-class display.
Fernandinho – 7
The Brazilian was immense in defensive midfield, putting in tackles and interceptions aplenty to win back possession for City almost as soon as Tottenham got it.
Raheem Sterling – 7.5
Sterling played a crucial role in City’s action-packed football, cutting in from the right and making movements into the penalty area for his team-mates to locate him. He scored a late brace, but only after he missed ample opportunities to score, notably a blazing shot over the bar after Gabriel Jesus hit the post with his penalty.
Kevin de Bruyne – 8.5
The Belgian master was on song, yet again. His range of passing, set-piece delivery and ability to get forward to get a shot away – that too with his weaker left foot – were the attributes of a next-to-flawless display from the Belgian. He finished a scintillating counter-attack to double City’s lead.
Ilkay Gundogan – 7.5
Gundogan marked his return with a goal from a free header and had a couple of good opportunities to add to his tally. He was a prominent presence in midfield, finding the likes of Sane and Sterling in space from the wide areas. His performance ensured that City didn’t miss the services of David Silva.
Leroy Sane – 8.5
Sane was excellent on the left, pressing across the byline and constantly getting goal-side of Kieran Trippier. His square balls were praying for a City shirt to get on the end of them.
Sergio Aguero – 6.5
Aguero’s movements were impressive, teeing away from his markers to get into goal-scoring positions. However, he was denied by Lloris on a couple of occasions and generally lacked composure in front of goal.
Substitutes
Gabriel Jesus – 6
Jesus nearly scored with his first touch but was denied by Vertonghen. He had the pace to get in between the centre-halves and put the pressure on the opposition. He gets struck down for his penalty miss, striking the post.
Phil Foden – 6.5
The 17-year old put in a couple of decent crosses during his short stint on the pitch
Bernardo Silva – 7
Silva almost beat Lloris at his near post with his first touch. Moments later, he set up Sterling for this second and City’s fourth, albeit it was a result of poor defending from Dier and Lloris.
Tottenham Hotspur
Hugo Lloris – 6.5
Lloris made a number of strong saves to keep Spurs in the game beyond half-time. However, he could be faulted for not being able to prevent de Bruyne from scoring, no matter how harsh it might sound. His night was made forgettable when Sterling knicked the ball through his legs after Dier fluffed a clearance, allowing the City winger to walk the ball into the net.
Kieran Trippier – 4
Trippier had a shocking game, being outpaced and out-thought by Leroy Sane on the wing throughout the 90 minutes. The pressure exerted by the German meant that he had close to no opportunity to impact the game going forward.
Eric Dier – 5
Dier had a tough 90 minutes against the leaders, finding the runs of City’s forwards almost impossible to deal with. His error in attempting to clear Bernardo Silva’s long ball led to Sterling scoring his second, summing up the versatile defender’s evening.
Jan Vertonghen – 6
Vertonghen made a couple of crucial clearances to stop square passes from finding their target inside the 6-yard box. The scorecard may have looked worse for the visitors but for Vertonghen, as he was the only one at the back for Spurs who looked focused and ready to adapt to the challenge posed by an offensively dangerous City.
Danny Rose – 5
Rose never provided any quality going forward and was constantly harrowed by Sterling, who kept cutting in from wide.
Harry Winks – 5.5
Winks covered a lot of ground, but most of it was for chasing the ball that City were in no mood to give away. Even when the youngster got the ball, he was surrounded by City shirts, who were only too eager to win it back.
Moussa Dembele – 5.5
Dembele could not get forward with the ball, running into Fernandinho amongst many others every time he had possession. He was guilty of a couple of fouls in midfield and did very little to break City’s high tempo.
Christian Eriksen – 6
The Danish midfielder had a subdued evening at Manchester, unable to find that final pass to cut open City’s defence. His injury-time goal was irrelevant.
Dele Alli – 4
Alli created virtually nothing from a number 10 position and could have been sent for an early bath for what looked like a stamp on Kevin de Bruyne.
Son Heung-min – 6
Son tried his hardest to open up space to run into from the right side of midfield, but City’s defence was organised and had an answer to any form of attack from Spurs.
Harry Kane – 5
Apart from a couple of shots – one which went narrowly off target and the other forcing a save from Ederson – Kane was below-par. He was sloppy on the ball, was well marked by Otamendi and Mangala and should have been sent off for a high-footed tackle on Raheem Sterling.
Substitutes
Erik Lamela – 4
Lamela’s introduction was co-incidental with City’s ascendancy towards the closing stages, leading to two goals. As a result, the Argentine was merely a spectator and hardly did anything meaningful with the ball.
Moussa Sissoko – 4
Sissoko replaced Alli to inject some late hope to break City down, but he failed to create any chance ended up getting booked.
Ben Davies – N/A
Davies came on very late, with the game quite dead by then.
