Citizens survived scares from both their closest rival as well as their opponent last night before continuing to cement their position as the current second best team in the English Premier League. Just a day before, Manchester United dropped points at Selhurst Park Stadium after a late equaliser from Crystal Palace, preventing the Red Devils to take all three points and climb to the second spot of the Premier League table while Antonio Conte’s men came to the Etihad Stadium with an aim to bounce back from their North London derby upsets and gained a 2-0 lead right before the half-time whistle was blown.
Two Goals in the Blink of an Eye
Two consecutive defeats in all competitions made Manchester City desperate to go back to winning ways, and Guardiola made five changes to his team who suffered a comeback defeat to rival Manchester United at Old Trafford, but Spurs, which lost to Arsenal last weekend with a 2-0 score line and are determined to fight for a Champions League spot at the end of this season, had different ideas. Both teams traded blows until the very end of the first 45 minutes but it was Tottenham which scored first.
Dejan Kulusevski capitalised on Ederson’s poor mistake to pass the ball to the under-pressure Rodri and scored his second goal for Spurs, after being loaned to the North London team. Just seconds later, Conte’s side broke away to the opposing half, and Harry Kane won the challenge against City’s Rodri. The England captain then sent a powerful strike towards Ederson, with his shot so solid that the goalkeeper could not parry away further from the box, allowing Emerson Royal to slot home Spurs’ second goal of the evening.
City Hit Four in the Second Half
Pep Guardiola must had been gutted with his team’s performance in the first half, but whatever he said in the dressing room during the break worked as City came back in the game in the second 45 minutes to hit Spurs with four goals, with its first coming five minutes after the break, courtesy of 2022 FIFA World Cup-winning forward Julián Álvarez. The striker beat Hugo Lloris during a chaos in the box. Two minutes later, City linked up another beautiful play, via Rodri’s long ball to the box that found Riyad Mahrez. The 31-year-old Algerian headed a pass for goal scoring machine Erling Haaland to equalise for the home side. The strike was Haaland’s 28th goal in 25 appearance for his new club Manchester City this season.
The scoring spree did not stop as the in-form Riyad Mahrez decided the take on Tottenham Hotspur’s defence on his own on the right wing. Since Ivan Perišić did not manage to intercept City’s pass to the right flank, the Algeria captain was allowed to run into the penalty box and hit a right-footed shot towards retired France international Lloris. The player who holds the most appearances for the French national team could have saved the shot given the angle where Mahrez shot the ball from. City then doubled their lead a minute before the added-time was awarded, via Ederson’s goal kick who found Mahrez, after a heavy touch from Spurs’ backline. The Algerian cleverly dinked the ball past Lloris and increased his tally of the season to double figures, propelling City to win the game 4-2.
Two goals and an assist to complete the comeback.
Riyad Mahrez put on a show 🪄 pic.twitter.com/2JkytR0ifS
— B/R Football (@brfootball) January 19, 2023
Trimmed the Gap on Arsenal
The victory allowed City to shorten its gap on league leader Arsenal in the Premier League title race, with the latter having a game on hand, which is a much-anticipated home fixture against the only team which had defeated them in this season’s Premier League, 20-time league winner Manchester United. City’s manager Pep Guardiola had this to say in the post-match conference, “We have to prepare better. I cannot deny how happy we are but we are far away from the team that we were Not in terms of play – we played good – but there are many other things, like competitiveness. We gave them the first goal. The second goal is ridiculous. There’s nothing from the stomach, from the guts. We were lucky, but if we don’t change we will drop more points.”
City will play Wolverhampton next at home in their next league fixture this weekend.
