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It was high drama again at the Etihad today, as Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur drew 2-2 following crazy scenes that saw City apparently snatch an injury time winner through Gabriel Jesus, only for VAR to chalk it off due to a handball from Aymeric Laporte in the build-up.
The game was largely one-sided in favour of City, who took a first half lead through Raheem Sterling before an Erik Lamela snapshot levelled things for Spurs just two minutes later.
City again went ahead with a Sergio Aguero goal late in the half, only for substitute Lucas Moura to equalise in the second half with literally his first touch of the ball. City then pushed hard for a winner but were unable to find one - largely thanks to VAR.
Here are 3 reasons why Tottenham drew with Manchester City.
#1 VAR rears its head again
Last season’s Champions League quarter-final between City and Tottenham ended in controversy as VAR chalked off a late winner for Raheem Sterling, and that trend continued here as Gabriel Jesus’s late winner was disallowed due to a handball in the build up by Aymeric Laporte.
For City fans, this must’ve been a hard pill to swallow, but while Tottenham fans will be singing the praises of the new system tonight, it’s likely only a matter of time before it comes back to bite them too.
Simply put, VAR is almost too perfect right now, picking up on slight errors and incidents that the human eye would usually miss. Did Laporte handle the ball? Definitely. Did he mean to? Most likely not, and realistically Jesus did all the work for the goal when he received the ball anyway.
VAR is apparently supposed to correct clear and obvious errors from the official, but when it’s used in the way it was at the Etihad, it comes off as almost nitpicky.
Unfortunately for fans - who will probably be beginning to feel like they can’t celebrate a goal until VAR confirms it - the genie is now out of the lamp and VAR is here to stay. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing is probably still too early to say; realistically every team is probably going to feel aggrieved by it at some point, but tonight City will probably feel cheated while Spurs fans will definitely feel relieved.
#2 City at their best are like a video game boss
Let’s be frank; this wasn’t a great showing from Tottenham Hotspur and realistically, the game should be classed as a point gained for them and a point dropped for Manchester City.
The statistics alone tell most of the story: City had 30 shots to Tottenham’s 3, including 10 on target, they had 52 touches in their opponent’s box compared to Tottenham’s 5, and had 13 corners to Tottenham’s 2. Basically, if City had finished more clinically, this could’ve been a massacre.
But why was this, particularly when the possession stats – 56% to City, 44% to Spurs – were so close? Unfortunately for the rest of the Premier League, Pep Guardiola has turned his very expensive squad into a well oiled, almost robotic machine that repeats the same moves and strategies almost to perfection.
They pass from the back while barely losing possession, foul the opposition to prevent the majority of potential quick breaks, and look to get to the by-line to send a low pass into an oncoming forward – over and over and over.
At their best – and City were at their best for the majority of this game – even a side as good as Spurs can barely touch them. The first half saw Kyle Walker-Peters and Moussa Sissoko constantly over-run on the right-hand side due to the movement of Raheem Sterling, while the second half was more of a midfield tale; Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan constantly exploited pockets of space behind Harry Winks, Tanguy Ndombele and Erik Lamela, meaning Tottenham were thoroughly pinned back into their own half.
Playing City right now is like facing a high-level video game boss – opponents have to take any chance they can get to snatch a goal, while also soaking up horrendous amounts of pressure. Judging by today’s game, if they don’t win the Premier League again it’ll be a surprise.
#3 Tottenham did take their chances
With all that said, some credit has to go to Mauricio Pochettino’s side for simply being able to capitalise on the chances they did get and steal two goals while soaking up a massive amount of pressure.
The floodgates could easily have opened when Raheem Sterling nodded Manchester City into the lead after 20 minutes, but instead the goal appeared to wake Tottenham Hotspur from their early slumber and they quickly equalised before enjoying probably their best period of the game.
Their second equaliser on 56 minutes was more of an outlier – it broke City’s dominance but only for a short moment and the tide quickly turned back in favour of the hosts, who had Spurs under the cosh for the remainder of the game – but it still represented a massive achievement considering Pochettino’s side only managed 3 shots on goal, one of which was a speculative long-range effort from Harry Kane when he spotted Ederson off his line.
The two goals were both caused by questionable defending from the hosts, too. Firstly Erik Lamela was uncharacteristically allowed a clear sight on goal following a break, and even more surprisingly, his shot caught Ederson – who seemed to be expecting a pass – off guard and flew into the net despite it not being all that powerful and also being close to the centre of the goal.
The equaliser was almost stranger; Lucas Moura was introduced to replace Harry Winks as Spurs readied for a corner, and somehow City’s defenders completely ignored the Brazilian inside the box. Sure, Lucas is only 5’8”, but judging by the header he scored today he’s got a hell of a leap – and the likelihood is that he won’t go unmarked at a corner again.
The bottom line? Against a side as powerful and dominant as Manchester City, if you want to come away with anything, you have to take your chances. And despite not creating all that much, Tottenham were able to do that today – rescuing a valuable point.
