With Leicester City dropping points against Arsenal earlier today, England’s top four became a much more crowded place. Tottenham visiting Manchester City was a perfect chance for both sides to work their way back into the title race. With two second-half goals from Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen, Tottenham managed to secure three points and leapfrog Arsenal in the table.
There wasn’t much to write home about in the first half, as both teams played a tough defensive game. Manchester City started strong but was unable to start the scoring.
Tottenham didn’t manage to score in the first half either, but they were the beneficiaries of a referee decision shortly after the start of the second half. Referee Mark Clattenburg called Raheem Sterling for a handball in the box and awarded Spurs a penalty. Harry Kane rifled his penalty straight down the middle, but Joe Hart had dove to left. City was not happy that the penalty was awarded as they felt that Sterling had turned his back to the play and wasn’t making any unnatural movement towards the ball.
City made their best effort to level the score after Tottenham’s opener. Sergio Aguero, in particular, was making life difficult for Spurs defenders. He frequently ran at the defense and created a few chances on his own. However, it was substitute Kelechi Iheanacho that was the one to level the score. Iheanacho took a low cross from Gael Clichy and hammered a shot into the top of the net. For a time, it looked as though Manchester City had found their groove.
It wasn’t to be for the hosts, however. Ten minutes after Iheanacho made it 1-1, Christian Eriksen put Spurs back in the lead. Erik Lamela played a perfect through ball for Eriksen who scored with a similarly perfect finish. The goal caught City by surprise and the home side was unable to recover.
City didn’t completely throw in the towel, and Tottenham had to weather a late flurry of activity around Hugo Lloris. But in the end, they were able to keep Manchester from leveling again and walked away with a big three points. It is another victory away from home for Spurs, who now find themselves on a 12 game road unbeaten streak.
This win is a big step towards Tottenham’s first title since 1961. There is still a lot of work to do, but the north London side is now level on points with their neighbors Arsenal. Making the upcoming North London Derby an even more critical match than it already is.
For City, the loss keeps them six points back of league leaders Leicester City. All is not lost, but if they have hopes of winning the Premier League they will have to start getting results. Dropping points to title rivals isn’t a very good start.
