5  Pablo ZABALETA
26  Martin DIMICHELIS
33  NASTATIC (  6 Joleon LESCOTT 46)
22  Gael CLICHY

15  Jesus NAVAS
42  Yaya TOURE     
25  FERNANDINHO
  8  Samir NASRI (  7 James MILNER 77)

  9 Alvaro NEGREDO
16  Sergio AGUERO (14 Javi GARCIA 69)
 

Unused subs: 
  1  Joe HART
  2  Micah RICHARDS
10  Edin DZEKO
60  Jonathan GIUDETTI
 

  2  Kyle WALKER     
  4  Younes KABOUL
20  Michael DAWSON (c)
  5  Jan VERTONGHEN     

  8  PAULINHO  (19  Mousa DEMBELE 61)
30  SANDRO      

  7  Aaron LENNON
14  Lewis HOLTBY (10 Emmanuel ADEBAYOR 46)
11  Erik LAMELA

  9  Roberto SOLDADO (22 Gylfi SIGURDSSON 61)

Unused subs: 
24  Brad FRIEDEL
  6  Vlad CHIRICHES
17  Andros TOWNSEND
18  Jermain DEFOE

Walking past a bookies this morning, I noticed in their window that they had put Tottenham's odds of winning at the Etihad out from 12/1 to 20/1. After this thrashing by City, even those odds looked generous.

Spurs kicked off and within 14 seconds the ball was in the back of their net. Played all the way back to Lloris, the French keeper fluffed his kick straight to Negredo, who shot and forced Hugo to dive to his left to save. Navas seized on the loose ball and from a narrow angle on the Tottenham left curled a shot over Lloris and into the net to give City an early lead.

It was a massive cock up that gave Spurs a one goal handicap when they are struggling to find the net themselves.

An equaliser nearly came soon after when Walker got away down the right and his low cross was missed by Dimichelis and Pantilimon, finding Lamela free beyond the far post. His shot at goal was left by the keeper, who was by now facing his own goal, but Dimechelis had got back to kick it off the line.

City had chances to further increase their lead, with Aguero and Negredo, which saw the Argentine through in the middle of the box, but Hugo was out to him and threw up an arm to stop the attempted lift over him. Then a good passing movement put Samir Nasri through into the area, but Sandro produced a fantastic tackle to rob him and like the former Gooner that he is, Nasri threw himself wanting a penalty, which he didn't get either.

In the 18th minute, Vertonghen smashed a low free kick from 25 yards straight at the keeper and the City crowd were getting wound up by the fouls that their own team were committing. Jan was doing well pushing forward up the left. One break saw him catch Dimechelis on his heels and get into the box to the line, but his cross was blocked out for a corner.

The early goal hadn't really stoked the home fans who might have thought the game was already over. Spurs fans raised their voices to get behind the team and the team had responded, but hadn't had any real goal threat. But against the run of play, Lloris' clearance went to a City shirt in the centre circle, it was played forward to where Hugo denied Aguero, but the loose ball dropped to Negredo four yards out and his falling scissors kick went in off a combination of Kaboul and then Sandro in the 34th minute.

Another goal that could have been avoided, but Tottenham's real faults were coming further up the field, where the ball was not being held and no problems were being caused to the home defence.

The only time the City fans were getting heated was when their players threw themselves hoping to get a free kick and didn't. When Vertonghen got booked you could see that someone would see red before the end.

It became 3-0 five minutes before half time when Zabaleta set Navas down the right and Lamela let him go, so he played a low ball into the six yard box and Aguero slid a left foot shot in off the far post.

Almost straight away, Lamela ran through the middle and laid in Paulinho, but his shot from right of centre saw him shoot too high. The half ended with Toure finally getting booked for a foul on Lennon, after pulling people back throughout the previous 43 minutes, then Walker picked up an unnecessary yellow card for trying to stop Nasri take a free kick by walking in front of him as he got back behind the ball.

It was hard to see Spurs getting anything from the game, but would AVB make the changes to make more of a match of it ?

Well, bringing Adebayor on for Holtby seemed a positive move, although Lewis wasn't the worst player in the first half, but leaving two banks of four meant that we weren't closing City players down further up the field.

Five minutes after the break Toure broke from just inside the Spurs half and Walker couldn't get back at him, allowing the midfielder to play the ball across the box for Ageuro to knock it in from ten yards out. It was becoming all too easy for City.

Nasri hit the bar when free on the left … whether he meant it or not, it was almost a fifth. That came five minutes later when Negredo turned Dawson easily and hit the ball past Lloris from just outside the box.

AVB then took off Soldado and Paulinho, with Dembele and Sigurdsson coming on. Mousa drew a low save from Pantilimon to his right with a drive from 20 yards out that would have gone just inside the post.

To add insult to injury, Howard Webb was having one of his Uriah Rennie days. Turning down a penalty shout when Sigurdsson was upended on the edge of the box, he gave a free kick to City at the other end, when Aguero turned his body forcibly into Dembele, who stepped out of the way, leaving the Argentinian to fall to the floor. Webb really is an egotistical referee in my opinion.

Negredo headed and Toure shot over the top, as Spurs tried without any success to get back into the game. Sigurdsson tried from 25 yards out with fifteen minutes left, but it was straight at Pantilimon again. Five minutes later, Dembele ran at the middle of the City defence and played it left to Adebayor, but his low shot was kept out by the goalie.
Fernandiho spared Spurs the ignominy of going six behind when Navas' low pull back from the right saw the Brazilian miss his kick from a couple of yards out at the near post and Kaboul cleared. Despite Tottenham keeping going forward, the closest we came to a goal was a corner that Pantilimon missed and the ball pin-balled about the box until it went to a light blue head who got it clear.

While Spurs couldn't score if they played all night, one long ball saw Vertonghen miss cutting it out and Navas was away, finishing one on one with Lloris to make it 6-0 and Tottenham's biggest Premier League defeat.

Earlier in the season, we were hunting in packs to close people down, but the lack of intent allowed City to play the way they wanted to. Playing narrow in the three forward midfielders allowed City to use the flanks, with Lamela and Lennon not tracking back effectively and the attacking players were too easily knocked off the ball by City's players. It was a bit of a hopeless task as Webb clearly did not see the little pushes and nudges that City were putting in, while he was keen eyed enough to see Tottenham's fouls.

City's fans didn't need to get too excited near the end, but from the start the number of blue plastic bucket seats showing perhaps indicate the expectation their fans now possess and the lack of passion might yet come back to haunt them when it is needed. How many missed their sixth, as the blue shone through all around the ground by then … except in the Spurs section.
For Spurs there are other shadows which they need to come out of and the team have lost their way a bit, especially when playing against the sides above them. AVB has a tough week ahead of him, with United coming to the Lane next Sunday after we have had a trip to Norway in the Europa League. Our previous losses had come after Europa League games and next week might add another to that list.
 

Burton Bradstock

Poor defeats against West Ham and Newcastle at home and now this humiliation shows he has not got the ideas or man management to change things around when it goes wrong - no plan b - and far too predicable. 

The lack of goals is a real real worry.  Take away the penalty wins and the last gasp goal against Cardiff and you see our true position in the league.  With more tough games and the ridiculous Europa League competition coming up, AVB better change it fast or we will be going into the transfer market for a new boss AGAIN!!  And you can forget about a top 4 finish on this display.

We seem to be suffering from an acute and ultimately debilitating attack of Penaltyitis - more commonly recognised as abject fear of approaching the opposition box.  We play wingers who have no perception of where the wings are; a striker who is permanently on strike; a midfield so muddled that they don’t even recognise each other; a defence that is easier to get behind than the proverbial bike shed and the most heinous crime of all is the total lethargy and lack of urgency in the play.

A tidy sum of £100 million squids has been spent and we play the dullest football in Europe.  The only solution is to ditch AVB, start again and plan now for next season when we can look forward to welcoming the new Premier League and European Champions to WHL ... yes you guessed it ... the bloody Arse!!!!

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.
 

The points gained from the match were equal to those of last season, but will the way the team played set them back for the coming matches ?