The Eruption of Mount St. Haaland

I couldn't resist using this title, but I'm glad it refers to his temper tantrum at the end of the game and not a hat trick after all.

As Erling Haaland was held scoreless by another makeshift edition of Spurs' defense, Dejan Kulusevski rescued a point with a late goal, his third in three visits to the Etihad. As matchups with the blue side of Manchester always seem to go, it was an eventful game all around with plenty of talking points. Let's get into it.

In this issue: Manchester City recap | Previewing West Ham | News from around the Lane

PL Matchday 14 recap | Manchester City 3 - 3 Tottenham

Son (OG) 9', Foden 31', Grealish 81' | Son 6', Lo Celso 69', Kulusevski 90'

This one felt like a moral victory for Ange Postecoglou—if only a draw for the standings.

It turns out that if you don't just cower in fear against the reigning title-holders you can actually get something out of the game (reinforced yesterday by Aston Villa). And to be honest, two of the goals we conceded to Manchester City were gifts—one of the unfortunate variety and one of the "what on earth are you doing?!" variety. Once again, it's tantalizing to think about what we could have done with a fully fit/suspension-free squad. At least the beauty of the Premier League is that you get to play each team twice. For some teams "get" might not be the most appropriate word, but in the case of City, we seem to have some sort of bogey-like hold over them.

If this kind of football we've been playing is naive, I never want to see us play it safe again.

Starting XI:

There was just one change to the lineup from the Aston Villa game, with Yves Bissouma getting his starting spot back after a one-game suspension. Pierre-Emile Højbjerg therefore dropped to the bench.

Richarlison was a surprise inclusion for the reserves, as was Academy player Yago Santiago. Eric Dier apparently is dealing with a groin issue and hasn't been training, so wasn't fit to make the bench—leaving us with zero senior centerbacks in the matchday squad. Alfie Dorrington represented an Academy option.

If someone asked me before the game, "what would be the cruelest possible thing to happen in this match?" well... I probably wouldn't have predicted what was about to happen but it certainly hurt! Son Heung-min scored both of the opening goals, one on City's end and one on our end.

His 6th minute goal started with a City corner that was parried out by Guglielmo Vicario and collected by Bryan Gil, who made a superb turn in tight space to send the ball ahead to Dejan Kulusevski. Deki sent a brilliant switching through ball out to Son on the right flank, where he flicked it on with his head to get in front of the chasing Jérémy Doku, whose attempt to pitch in on defense failed to stop Sonny's pace and determination to get a shot off. Ederson had a chance to save it, but as usually seems to happen Son's impeccable technique got the better of him. The pass from Kulusevski was a great example of the creativity he can bring when operating in the playmaker role.

The own goal in the 9th minute was more bad luck than anything, as the ball deflected off Son's thigh during a City set piece. I haven't fact checked this so don't quote me, but I heard that this was his first-ever own goal. Happens to the best, as they say. Son was able to redeem himself in the second half with an assist, but not before another City goal.

Manchester City took the lead in the 31st minute. A sloppy clearance by Emerson Royal eventually led to a sequence of passes by City in and around our box, culminating in Phil Foden waltzing in unmarked for an easy shot. Not our best defense by a long shot, but also the only goal City really had to work at.

Ange made one substitution at halftime, swapping Gil out for Pierre-Emile Højbjerg. This meant Lo Celso advanced to the #10 while Deki went out to the wing, as Brennan Johnson flipped over to the left side. Pep Guardiola also made a fairly early sub, taking Doku out for Jack Grealish.

Vicario got himself into hot water mere seconds after the restart, sending a pass straight into City's forward line, but made a superb save on Bernardo Silva's resulting shot.

We didn't equalize for the first time until the 69th minute. Ben Davies intercepted an aimless pass from Julián Álaverz (Haaland was caught sleeping) with a diving header, which reached Son in the center of City's half for a quick square ball to Giovani Lo Celso. Gio carried the ball a few yards then cut left to evade Rúben Dias, as Son made a decoy run to drag Rodri out of Gio's shooting path. The low shot to the left corner did brush Ederson's fingertips but had too much power on it to be saved. It was a lovely quick-fire goal that showcased Davies' awareness to press, Son's selfless willingness to pass (even though we know he can hit a shot from the same range) and smart movement to create space, and Lo Celso's shooting skills.

This is probably a good time to mention that City had more than enough chances to put this game away, but they didn't score again until the 81st minute. Bissouma struggled to control the ball after another awkward clearance from Royal, but instead of progressing the ball he decided to get cute with it and try to dribble past a trio of City players. Rodri nicked the ball of him, passed it up to Haaland, and the scoreless Norwegian squared the ball to assist Grealish's close-range shot. When I tell you that I was hissing at my TV as he celebrated directly into the camera, I am not exaggerating. I have long had an instinctive dislike of Grealish and this goal didn't help. But his over-the-top celebration ended up being a case of hubris because that was not a game-winning goal.

Spurs were able to find one last equalizer in the 90th minute. Remember how Johnson had gone out to the left wing after playing the first half on the righthand side? The change paid dividends as he sent in a beautiful cross with his left foot after beating Kyle Walker (who was visibly out of gas), with Sonny sending up the hockey assist beforehand. Kulusevski rose higher than Nathan Aké and it wasn't the most graceful header I've ever seen—it maybe hit his shoulder too—but it was effective.

There was some controversy late on with head official Simon Hooper calling back a foul after initially playing advantage, but it wasn't a guarantee that Grealish would score from that position anyway (Vicario is rather good at stopping one-on-ones, after all). City also had a mild penalty shout in the dying moments, but it looked like Manuel Akanji was exaggerating the contact from substitute Oliver Skipp.

It would have been amazing to grab all three points, but it was important to break the losing streak nevertheless. And with City's loss in the next matchday, some games of which have already been completed, we can draw even with them on points with a win in our match against West Ham. Unfortunately, their goal difference advantage is pretty steep.

SAtP Player of the Match: Dejan Kulusevski

Deki has suddenly become one of our most in-form players. He has two goals and an assist in the last four PL matches and has made his influence known in all of them. It's not a coincidence that this hot streak has occurred as he's had an opportunity to play more centrally—a role which he himself says he prefers. After all the talk about how he only had "one move" when playing on the right wing (which I am guilty of, to be fair), he's been able to flex his creativity and pose a variety of threats from the #10 position.

Apparently one of his recent personal goals was to score more with his head, and although I alluded earlier to the fact that this particular attempt wasn't the cleanest effort, it's a start!

Notable and quotable:

• Richarlison subbed on for his first appearance since October 27 (he was an unused substitute in the Chelsea game on November 6).

• Jamie Donley earned his Premier League debut with a cameo deep into stoppage time (I'm genuinely not sure if he touched the ball at all). It would be nice to see what he can do at this level with some more game time since he's been making the PL2 look easy. With this appearance, he became the 880th player to be awarded a Legacy Number with Spurs.

• Son's goal was his 50th away goal in PL competition.

Previewing PL Matchday 15 — West Ham

I'm gonna be frank, I don't think I've watched a single West Ham game this season—or if I have, it left zero impression. Perhaps its the post-Declan Rice era effect.

The Hammers have mostly been handling the teams they would reasonably be expected to beat as a team in its second straight year of European competition, but they've struggled against top 6 teams. Speaking of Europe, they're currently at the top of their Europa League group with one game left to play.

This will be West Ham's second London derby in a row, drawing 1-1 with Crystal Palace on the weekend. And since the other London teams like to form alliances against us, I will briefly take this opportunity to thank West Ham for knocking Arsenal out of the League Cup last month; if we can't win it, neither can Arsenal.

Although we don't have to worry about Rice anymore, they only have one injury in their remaining squad, Michail Antonio. As for new signings this season, Mohammed Kudus has made the biggest impact so far with three goals and an assist in PL play from the right winger position. But also keep an eye on Konstantinos Mavrapanos (if he plays—he's had limited gametime but did start against Palace); in his stint in the Bundesliga with Stuttgart, he was known to come up with a few goals a season from the centerback position. West Ham and set piece threat, where have I heard that song before?

Our squad availability has slightly improved since last writing, with Richarlison now back in action (albeit on limited minutes) and Cristian Romero back from suspension finally. However, Pape Sarr is still out with a mystery knock and Eric Dier is also unlikely to be involved. I mean, he wouldn't be starting anyway with Romero back, but he won't be a backup on the bench either.

The big question around Ange's team selection is whether Bryan Gil will get another start or if Pierre-Emile Højbjerg will return to the starting lineup. There's pros and cons to both options.

Although Bryan struggled after his important contribution to the opening goal, West Ham are not exactly the same level of challenge as Manchester City for the developing winger. It might do him good confidence-wise to get another start and another chance to show what he can bring to the team. Starting Bryan also allows Kulusevski to start in the #10 position where he's shown so much promise over the last few games.

On the other hand, Brennan Johnson looked pretty strong on the left wing after the positional tweaks in the City game. I also think it's a good thing for Giovani Lo Celso to get more minutes in the playmaker role so that we build up our roster for the #10 position in James Maddison's continued injury absence.

Whichever strategy Ange goes with, we can probably expect to see the reverse scenario come into play when he makes his subs later on. He's also going to have to consider subbing Son out fairly early on to give him some much-needed rest ahead of the weekend clash with Newcastle (thankfully another home fixture). I could see Richarlison providing value at striker late in the game if West Ham have hunkered in, but Alejo Véliz is another option who would surely love some game time.

It's fairly important that we get a win in this fixture, because doing so would not only draw us level on points with City but also prevent us from losing too much ground on ascendant Aston Villa. Manchester United are also nipping at our heels after winning their fixture in this matchday, a narrow 2-1 win over Chelsea that put them level on points with us ahead of our game. Newcastle and Brighton are also close behind. Until we have the squad fully fit again we need to be laser-focused on picking up points where we can.

News from around the Lane

• Fraser Forster extended his contract by a year, keeping him at the club until the summer of 2025.

I don't love this move from the club necessarily, because I'm having unpleasant flashbacks to his penalty shootout performance in the League Cup ouster, but I mean... there are probably worse personalities to have around the squad. Here's to hoping Vicario stays fit for the rest of the season so Forster can remain a vibes man only.

Side note: did you know he's played 21 times for us? I can't believe it's been that many games.

• I forgot to mention in the last issue that Spurs Women played a friendly against Gibraltar in which Bethany England made her return from injury. And she scored four goals! Sure, it's just Gibraltar, but it seems like a positive sign that she was immediately back "amongst the goals," as they say.

I don't want to get ahead of myself and assume she'll make an appearance against Manchester United on the weekend, but we can hope!

• I enjoyed the latest Off the Shelf podcast with Robert Vilahamn (not least because I finally feel like I have a firm grasp of how to pronounce his name).

As with all of his interviews, I appreciate how candid he is—to the point that he was the one to bring up the disappointing defeat to Manchester City first, unprompted during the introduction. It was interesting to hear more about his coaching journey and his leadership philosophy. There's also a fun fact in that we learn what subject he taught alongside Physical Education when he was juggling teaching with his management duties early on in Sweden. All that being said... I don't think he needs to be asked about Ange in every interview.

• Congratulations to SpursREACH for winning the Fans for Diversity Award at the FSA Awards.

We're all volunteers at the end of the day but we want to make sure football's for everyone.

Let's close with a couple of delightful photos.

What could be more festive than Pep having his regularly scheduled collapse and a snowman taller than Vicky Jepson?

COYS

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