Tottenham shows toughness, takes three points from Manchester City

Tottenham continued to counterpunch in the second half

The second half of the match was very much like the first half. Man City came out trying to jump on the Spurs. Eventually, Raheem Sterling rolled a ball toward Hugo Lloris for the first official shot on goal at almost 49 minutes. However, it would be Son and Spurs making magic just five minutes later.

Son sends stadium into pandemonium

The Spurs managed to clear out the ball, with Lucas Moura clipping the ball up over his head and forward into the path of Steven Bergwijn. As he did much of the day, Bergwijn saw space in front of him and took it with the dribble. As three Manchester City defenders compressed centrally behind the ball, Son drifted wide into the space where the missing left-back should have been. Mendy had gotten caught up in the attack.

Bergwijn played the ball into the space and Son ran onto it. Sonny dribbled at Nathan Ake who did not want to get beat wide. Then Son cut hard in onto his left foot and curled the ball between Ake and a diving Ruben Dias and past Ederson for a goal. We knew if there was a weakness to City it was on their left side in defense and the Spurs took perfect advantage of that fact.

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium erupted as Sonny ran toward the corner and slid onto his knees. That goal makes it four in four matches at the new digs for Son against Manchester City and the Lilywhites are 4-0 in those matches.

This is not last season’s Tottenham Hotspur

Following the goal, there was only going to be one outcome. However, there would be other moments to rock Spurs. In an eerily familiar situation, Bergwijn had the chance to finish the match but failed to convert after being played in by some good fortune.

Last season the team hung their heads and ran out of gas far too often when facing adversity. On Sunday, the Spurs showed this team may be made of different stuff. Instead of dwelling on the miss, the team kept pushing and held on to a big win.

Tottenham needs to enjoy a hard-fought win for now. Then tomorrow get back to work as defeat in Portugal or against Nuno Espirito Santo’s former club next weekend would make this win a lot less meaningful.

Just as a loss on Sunday would not have necessarily meant Spurs would have had a bad start to the season, a win is just that a single win.

But when that win comes against the defending champs on opening day, it sure feels good. Enjoy it Spurs fans!