How Spurs Won: Away at Manchester City

In the end, there wasn’t much special Spurs had to do to come away from a visit to Manchester City with a win.

Mauricio Pochettino named a side with only two changes from the side that faced Watford a week ago. Kyle Walker came on for Kieran Trippier and Danny Rose came on for Ben Davies.

No Tottenham team that Pochettino could conceivably name would be good at only one thing, of course. This is a side built around adaptability and the ability to take what the opposition gives you.

As it stood, though, City were happy to allow Tottenham to play in their preferred style. They sat back and allowed Tottenham the run of the midfield, only aggressively stepping in to stop forays into their defensive third.

The idea – it seems – was to catch Tottenham out on the break, with Raheem Sterling in particular switching flanks to test the visitor’s offside trap. While Pochettino clearly anticipated this in naming Walker and Rose – arguably the faster set of full-backs available to him – but overall this is a tactic that Tottenham’s system is built to defend against.

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The natural assumption for years now is that oppositions will attempt to contain Tottenham and wait for the inevitable chance that opens up in a counter-attack. Pochettino’s deployment of Eric Dier and Mousa Dembélé in deeper midfield is a direct response to that. They provide additional cover for the defense while also being capable of moving forward when Spurs have possession.

That pair’s presence on the pitch Sunday was immense. While Yaya Touré is not the cannonball presence from midfield that he used to be, he could still pose a serious danger. Dier and Dembélé were instrumental in making sure the big Ivorian was limited to lateral passes, a couple of sloppy attempts at a high press and inefficient chances from distance.

For all the sophisticated layers going on it defense, Spurs were unable to bring to bear the full spectrum of their lethal attack. City deserves a lot of credit for some proactive defending, chasing down any ball that got close to their defensive third and regularly dispossessing any Spurs player that attempted to create incisions.

Rose’s frequently unmarked runs to City’s corner looked like they’d play a bigger role than they ultimately did. City were content to let the left-back through so long as his attempts at crosses continued to be so poor.

City’s efforts worked particularly well against Heung-min Son. The South Korean winger often did well to drop back and help recover possession, but his attempts forward rarely came to anything. He managed to get dispossessed five times over the course of his 70 minutes on the pitch, and failed to register a single shot.

Son’s spot in the starting XI was previously occupied by Érik Lamela, and the Argentine’s turn as a substitute suggested that he’ll be getting that spot back soon.

Next: Matchday: Manchester City 1 - 2 Tottenham

Though he wasn’t introduced into the 80th minute, Lamela immediately made his presence known. Receiving a ball recovered by Dembélé, Lamela pushed forward behind an on-rushing Christian Eriksen and nutmegged Nicolás Otamendi to set the Dane up for the winning goal. It was the slightest of tastes of what Spurs’ most expensive signing can do, but it was enough.

Spurs didn’t need any fancy tactics or tactical shifts to beat this City team. In a lot of ways City did it to themselves by choosing not to test Spurs until after Kane had already scored his penalty. In any case, it’s an invaluable three points from a team that can now confidently show up to any match and expect a result.