Conversation Corner: Tottenham vs Manchester City
Tottenham reflects on the win versus Manchester City.
*Recapping Mauricio Pochettino and his players’ thoughts following each game, throughout the season from post-game interviews to tweets.*
Here’s the ninth edition of Conversation Corner: Tottenham vs Manchester City!
Heading into this fixture against the league leaders, Manchester City, this would be Tottenham’s toughest opponent this early into the season. It didn’t help that the previous four meetings went against Spurs in lopsided fashion for a majority of those matches. But it would be the best time to finally end a losing streak that began in the 2013-14 season.
Much has been talked about Tottenham’s offensive woes. The injuries, Harry Kane’s scoring drought and the lack of scoring goals in games. They averaged under one goal per game (0.83) thus far before the game versus Man City. However what wasn’t being talked about as much — if at all — was how improved Spurs’ defense had become, especially the entire backline and the emergence of Eric Dier as the team’s defensive midfielder.
Three consecutive clean sheets and allowing about 0.66 goals per game on average — even if it’s early into the season — shows how much they’ve improved after allowing the fifth worse goals last season despite finishing fifth. But would Mauricio Pochettino’s defense help contain an impressive collection of attacking players that City boasted?
The short answer is yes. The long answer is still yes. Tottenham’s defense has kept the team in all of their games and while it has cost them 9 points in the Premier League (Manchester United, Stoke City and Leicester City) the defense helped them reach 5th in the table after a great September with 9 points won (Sunderland, Crystal Palace and Manchester City).
Next: Mauricio Pochettino