Tottenham Hotspur showed that preseason was no smokescreen as the Spurs went toe to toe with the champions and took all three points from Manchester City.
Tottenham Hotspur looked like they might be getting back to top form in the preseason. The preseason is much different than the regular season, particularly if you are playing the defending champions in the opener. However, Tottenham grew into the match and took all three points from Manchester City in a huge 1-0 win to open the season.
Spurs worked to set the tone early
Within the first 90 seconds of the game, Davinson Sanchez had hit two long balls to stretch the defense and Japhet Tangaga had crunched Raheem Sterling with a physical tackle on the wing. Despite the immense pressure from Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur was setting the tone that they were neither going to back down from the champions nor give them a free inch in their own half of the pitch.
As City looked to establish some early dominance through possession and fouls drawn by Jack Grealish, they were never able to get a clear sight of the goal, as Tottenham was organized and aware. The structure and shape of Tottenham’s 4-3-3 kept City out of the most dangerous places in the middle of the pitch and worked to frustrate the Sky Blues in the first half.
Tottenham grew in confidence and into the match
City crossed the ball from side-to-side but the Spurs stayed in position and on their marks not allowing any easy looks. Tanganga continued to be physical with both Grealish and Sterling to the point Anthony Taylor had a little conference with the young defender and Tottenham captain Hugo Lloris.
As Tanganga set the tone, the midfield followed suit, with Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Oliver Skipp, and Dele Alli all putting in strong, physical shifts. The more Tottenham fought back, the more frustrated the Cityzens grew. As the City grew more frustrated, Tottenham grew more confident and into the match.
As the Spurs’ confidence grew, so did the precision of their counterattack and their play on the ball. It took a swift block with his backside by Joao Cancelo to prevent Son Heung-Min from scoring on the best chance of the first half.
As half-time came, the momentum seemed to be shifting slightly as Spurs hung tough taking six shots to 8 from Manchester City. Tottenham’s quick work on the counterattack was working and City was not in total control.
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!