On this day in 2020: Another win over Manchester City at home

It is hard to believe that it is now four years to the day since Tottenham Hotspur defeated Manchester City 2-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, to ensure they remained top of the Premier League table for another week to start the season.

It can sometimes be hard to remember which manager got the better of Pep Guardiola and Manchester City when remembering each win. For this occasion it was Jose Mourinho.

One of several wins at home to Manchester City back in 2020

For this game, the Portuguese manager went with a starting line up of; Lloris, Aurier, Alderweireld, Dier, Reguilon; Sissoko, Hojbjerg; Son, Ndombele, Bergwijn; Kane. Lo Celos, Lucas, and Rodon came off the bench.

After just five minutes of the game, Spurs had the lead. Having received the ball in space, Ndombele played a superbly weighted through ball to Son, who ran through on goal before nutmegging Ederson in the City goal with a left footed finish.

The idea to play Son in the somewhat unfamiliar right wing role paid off as early as that. With the forwards two footedness, there isn’t too much difference, particularly in an isolated game. He proved that with the very composed left footed finish for his goal there.

As you would expect, Mourinho’s side sat deep for large periods of time after that. City thought they had equalised around 25 minutes in, but Aymeric Laporte’s left footed finish was disallowed for a handball on Gabriel Jesus.

Spurs would go into the half time interval with a one goal lead. City had of course had plenty of the ball, but had not really created many chances of note, with the stubborn low block negating chance creation in the final third.

The second half was much of the same. Twenty minutes into the half, Lo Celso replaced Ndombele. Within a minute of coming on, he had got on the scoresheet, after a perfectly weighted and timed through ball from Kane, the Argentine kept his composure to fire low past Ederson in the City goal.

That would be that, and Spurs would hold on for a two goal lead, despite a couple of chances late on for the visitors. Kane was awarded the Sky Sports man of the match award, despite not having a single shot of any note in the game.

In truth, that award being given to him despite that stat, just shows how good his performance was. The striker had 48 touches of the ball, despite 34% possession for Spurs. He drew six fouls, which seriously helped Spurs manage the game and get up the pitch. Furthermore, he made three tackles – and of course assisted Lo Celso for his goal off the bench.

It was the first time that Mourinho had beaten Guardiola in successive times in his career. This game was the third of five wins to nil for Spurs over City at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It was the second of four wins to nil in the league, although most people were glad to see that streak end in May of this year.