Tottenham Hotspur   3    Manchester City   0     (Half-time score : 1-0)

  1  Gomes

32  Assou-Ekotto   (  3  Bale  90+5)
19  Bassong
20  Dawson (c)
22  Corluka

21  Kranjcar          
  6  Huddlestone
12  Palacios     
  7  Lennon

18  Defoe     (  8  Jenas  90+2)
15  Crouch

Unused subs: 
27  Alnwick
  2  Hutton
14  Modric
  9  Pavlychenko
10  Keane

  1  Given

  2  Richards
  4  Onuoha
28  Toure
16  Sylvinho     

  7  Ireland
34  de Jong        (17  Petrov  71)
18  Barry
10  Robinho  (14  Santa Cruz  59)

32  Tevez       
25  Adebayor

Unused subs: 
12  Taylor
  5  Zabaleta
33  Kompany
40  Weiss
27  Benjani
 

Kranjcar  37
Defoe  54
Kranjcar  90+3

None

    
Palacios (foul)  66
Kranjcar (foul)  71  
 

    
Sylvinho (foul)  61
de Jong (foul)  69
Tevez (foul)  90+3   

Spurs beat Manchester City 3-0 in a game that seemed to be easy, but I am not sure how.  City failed to turn up in the all guns blazing style they show at home, but away from Eastlands they are a different kettle of fish and frankly they stunk the place out with their lack of incisive play, which belies their record of only two defeats all season.  However, that might be explained by the large number of draws they have taken part in. 

With Robinho’s effort that had to be tipped over the top by Gomes in the first half and the Spurs keeper having to make two saves in the last five minutes, it must have been a chilly night for the Brazilian.  The lack of clear cut chances was further exacerbated by the good play of Sebastien Bassong and Michael Dawson in the middle of defence.

For the first 20 minutes, City ran the midfield with Spurs struggling to keep up with the short passing of Gareth Barry and tigerish play of Nigel de Jong, but the passing was mainly sideways and the tiger in the Dutchman’s tank ran down as the effects of the Swine Flu he had been suffering kicked in.  The moaning from the Spurs fans started as early as the first minute and I feared the players would be charging into the crowd to sort of their gripes, but gradually Tottenham eased their way back into the game and began opening up the City defence. 

Aaron Lennon had got away down the right and pulled a low ball back to Kranjcar, but the midfielder shot way over from a good position.  The first goal came from another good cross from Lennon, who had a reasonably quiet first half.  He got a bit of space and put in a long cross from the right wing onto Peter Crouch’s head and his header was stopped by Stephen Ireland, who tried to chest the ball down.  He did manage that, but only for Niko Kranjcar to be on the spot to shoot home past the static Given from inside the six yard box. 

Goal two came from a route one move.  Gomes launched a long free-kick towards Crouch’s head from ten yards inside the Spurs half and the striker’s knock down into the box was hopelessly missed by Toure, who flung a flailing leg at the ball without getting near it.  Poised to strike behind him was Jermain Defoe, who in a situation where he didn’t have time to think about it, did what he does best and prodded the ball first time to Given’s left, as the keeper was back on his heels. 

It was only in the last five minutes of the game when City pushed forward and brought Heurelho Gomes into action.  First the Spurs goalie had to dive to his right to get good hands on Martin Petrov’s free-kick and push it to safety, then three minutes later, he smothered Ireland’s low drive.  City’s best chance came when a ball into the penalty area found Adebayor sliding in unmarked but the ex-Gooner could only put his effort high into the Park Lane end. 

Inside injury time, Vedran Corluka won a corner and it was taken short by Kranjcar to Lennon.  The winger touched the ball inside the full back to the Croatian, who had run around the defender, he took the ball past one more player inside the area and as Given closed him down, he toe-poked the ball through the goalie’s legs for a hilarious ending to what had started as a battle between two sides vying for fifth place. 

While not in the sort of passing form that saw off Wigan Athletic in such resounding style, the team dug in and worked hard enough to track the runs of the City players and they made sure that there was little getting through to the Tottenham goal.  With City playing a more expansive game than the likes of Stoke City and Wolverhampton Wanderers, there was always the chance of getting something from this game and the three goals from probably a total of 12 yards out, indicates that the nature of the goals do not have to be classics to win matches. 

With a win putting Spurs two points behind Aston Villa, it makes Saturday’s trip to Blackburn Rovers another important game; one which the players need to continue the good away form in.

sid e. netting