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Flop: Raheem Sterling
Manchester City winger/forward Raheem Sterling has struggled for goals in recent matches; he hasn’t found the back of the net since City’s December loss against Wolves, and today wasn’t his finest 90 minutes by a great margin.
Not only did Sterling only take one shot on goal throughout the game – a blocked effort that didn’t make the target – but his efforts at creating chances for his teammates seemed to be few and far between too, with one pass to Ilkay Gundogan being particularly poor. The England man simply needed to slide the ball across to the German, but overhit it, which caused Gundogan to sky his shot.
To make matters worse, Sterling was also involved in a pair of flashpoints and could easily have seen a red card. His challenge on Dele Alli during the first half was simply horrible, as he lunged over the top of the ball and smashed into the Spurs man’s ankle. A few inches higher and it could’ve been a horror break, but somehow VAR failed to step in, meaning Sterling was only booked.
Then after Hugo Lloris saved Gundogan’s penalty, the England forward chased in for the rebound, only to go down, claiming another spot-kick. However, a VAR check showed that there had been no contact between him and Lloris – so quite why he escaped a second yellow is anyone’s guess.
Sterling’s day was summed up when he was later substituted following what looked like a hamstring injury; this was one to forget for him.
Hit: Hugo Lloris
Early in the season, when Hugo Lloris made a handful of gaffes – including a memorable one that cost Tottenham a goal against Southampton – many fans were calling for the French keeper to be dropped in favour of understudy Paulo Gazzaniga. In the end, Mauricio Pochettino – and Jose Mourinho – had their hands forced by an elbow injury to Lloris that kept him out for 4 months.
Lloris returned to action last month, and while Gazzaniga didn’t perform badly in his absence, it was clear today exactly why the Frenchman remains Tottenham’s #1. This was a fantastic showing from the World Cup winner – not only did he make 5 saves, including one from Ilkay Gundogan’s penalty and another incredible one to direct Sergio Aguero’s shot onto the post, but he also gave Spurs’ defence an air of calm that his Argentine understudy was unable to.
City threw everything they could at Tottenham today but simply couldn’t beat Lloris, who also showed bravery with a number of claims in the air – as well as some incredible smarts to stop a Kevin De Bruyne cross-come-shot from heading into the net late on.
Defenders Toby Alderweireld and Japhet Tanganga also performed admirably for Tottenham today, but who knows what Jose Mourinho’s side would’ve come away with from this game without their French superman in goal. The likely truth is nothing – meaning Lloris was a huge hit today.
