Taking the Pep out of City's Step--Again!

Tottenham could very well be the only team to do the double on Manchester City this season after a stunning 2-3 away win

What a match! I'm sure every Spurs fan was smiling as broadly as Conte is here after the game--and probably most Liverpool fans, too, since the PL title race is officially back on.

It does seem kind of contradictory that Spurs could lose back-to-back matches to Southampton and Wolverhampton and then go and beat the defending title-holders for the second (!) time this season, but there you have it. When have Spurs' results ever made sense? But at the same time, we were fully deserving of this statement win. While it wasn't exactly a comfortable feeling to watch a match where we only had 28% possession (not a typo!), Conte got the tactics just right, and with a little better luck we might not have conceded any goals at all. City's two goals came from another weird blunder from Hugo (more on the skipper soon) and an unfortunate handball penalty; otherwise, the defense performed spectacularly and limited them to only one quality shot that I can recall.

Let's get back to Hugo real quick, since it was a big occasion for our keeper:  his 400th appearance for Spurs. A clean sheet would have been a better way to celebrate the moment, and it was frustrating to see him make another uncharacteristic mistake that led to a City goal, but he did pull off one of the best saves I've ever seen him make. So it balances out! I'm still glad that Hugo renewed his contract with the club and we will get to enjoy seeing him between the sticks for many more appearances to come.

Normally for one of these match recaps, I would go player by player and sort out who played well, who played poorly, and who failed to make an impact. But for this game, there really weren't any bad or flat performances to call out. The whole squad, including the players who came on as substitutes, did their part and combined for a strong collective effort. Perhaps that's why this feels like one of our better games in a while, regardless of the result. Everyone was in sync and committed to Conte's objectives. There is, however, one true standout from the match.

Harry Edward Kane, MBE.

This was probably the best overall performance we've ever seen from Harry, for club or country. He was simply unstoppable (and unlucky not to have a hat trick!). I'm sure it was painful for Pep Guardiola and the rest of Man City to witness, knowing what could have been. Kane is a big reason we were able to go toe-to-toe with City this time, rather than the admitted smash-and-grab job that was the first win on opening matchday. Fingers crossed that he can maintain this impressive form for the rest of the season and help Spurs clinch top 4. By the way, he's almost caught up to Sonny on the PL goals tally!

Son also deserves a lot of credit for his contributions, notching two assists and causing constant trouble for City's defense with his blistering pace. They just didn't have an answer for him. He did have one of several injury scares for our players during the match (I feared for his hamstring after that one footrace with Kyle Walker), so I'm glad Conte subbed him out in the 80th minute.

Son and Kane are now tied with Lampard and Drogba for most goal contributions in the PL, so we need him healthy to finally break that record with Harry. When these two are in top form, the only other forward line in the league that even comes close to matching them is Liverpool's. Sonny's pace and dribbling skills combined with Kane's passing vision and poaching ability (and they are versatile enough to balance both strategies) are lethal to opponents.

And for one more individual shoutout, let's give a massive round of applause for Dejan Kulusevski, aka Deki, who scored his first goal and registered his first assist on his first-ever start for the club. Daunted by the intimidating opponent? No way, not Deki. We really saw what he can bring to the team, especially his superb crossing skills. His assist for Harry's game-winner was a thing of beauty (and he stayed onside that time--phew!). It's nice to have him as another option for Lucas, since we know the Brazilian will run himself into the ground without rest.

I was really pleased with the defensive effort in this match. Besides the massive save that Hugo had to make, City really didn't get many decent looks (not going to count the gimme clean-up goal from Gündoğan after Hugo's earlier error). Having Dier back in the central CB role was a huge boost to the team. Davies had been looking a bit lost in the last few games without Dier there, but he was back to his usual self for this match. I was a bit nervous when Romero picked up a yellow fairly early in the game, but he stayed cool and was unfortunate to have the handball decision go against him. I don't think it should have been a penalty, and I've certainly seen more egregious handballs not called, but c'est la vie.

On that note, Anthony Taylor had a pretty poor refereeing performance, in my opinion. It seems curious that there were that few fouls called in such a contentious match, and I think he let City get away with a lot. How did Kevin de Bruyne escape without a yellow? Beats me.

There was a strange moment when Hugo seemed to be getting into it with Dier, and if you look back at City's first goal Eric was very close to Hugo when he spilled the ball, so I almost wonder if there was some miscommunication going on, with Dier having been out for several matches. Either way, they seemed to sort things out over the course of the game. I don't think it's fair to say that Spurs were purely playing counter-attacking football, since there were several times that we played out well from the back, mostly thanks to distribution from Hugo and Dier.

It's a bit of a bummer that despite securing such an exciting, odds-defying win, we still remain in 8th place in the table. (It's also a bummer that Ryan Mason is the only Spurs manager in recent years not to get a win over City, and in a cup final no less--sigh.) But on a positive note, the only team we're battling for 4th that we don't have a game in hand (or several) over is Arsenal, and we still have our home matchup against them to come.

Belated Burnley

Now we need to carry the momentum from this huge win into the midweek match against Burnley. The road trip continues at cold and windy Turf Moor.

Burnley's recent results include a 3-0 win over Brighton and a narrow 1-0 loss to Liverpool. They undoubtedly strengthened during the transfer window by letting Chris Wood go and replacing him with Wout Weghorst (not the nicest human being, but regrettably, a decent striker). Former Spur Aaron Lennon has also gotten onto the scoresheet for Burnley a few times already this season. They have a couple of players who might still be out with illness for our matchup, including their best defender, James Tarkowski. I know I've said that Nick Pope is not the caliber of keeper I would want to take over for Hugo one day, but he is a capable shot-stopper, so let's hope Harry still has his finishing boots on for Wednesday's game. As for our injury situation, I can only assume Reguilón will still be out with COVID, and haven't heard an update yet on Skipp or Tanganga.

Typically we would struggle against Burnley's low block defense, but I wonder if they might play a little more openly now that Weghorst is on board (I didn't catch their win against Brighton, so just a theory). Even if they don't, Deki offers a fresh option on the wing to deliver some pinpoint crosses into the box, while Bentancur has a nice through ball in him. On the defensive end, I have no doubt that we can hold them off.

Spurs Women getting recognition

Our Women's team has nominations across all of the monthly awards, including Manager of the Month and Player of the Month. Make sure you give them your vote, starting with Ashleigh Neville!

I will admit that I haven't watched any of the international break action since the Olympics just wrapped up and figure skating had been consuming my life (I wouldn't have it any other way). All I can say is that I'm glad it wasn't Ria Percival who scored a hat trick of own goals when her New Zealand team played the USWNT. Yikes. Hope her teammate is getting lots of support.

Mostly I just wish the international break was over so we could get back to watching Spurs Women matches 😬. Priorities!

Elsewhere in my spare time, I've been enjoying podcasting with the Tottenham Depot crew. The podcast just reached 10K downloads, the majority of which I cannot take any credit for, but which is exciting nonetheless. Cheers to everyone who has listened!

COYS