Tottenham continue to be lavished with praise following Saturday’s sensational victory against Premier League champions Manchester City.
Spurs romped to a 4-0 win over City to breathe fresh hope into their season. Ange Postecoglou’s plans to establish his side as genuine contenders have frequently been undermined by inconsistencies, but the emphatic manner of their victory was quite the statement of intent.
While much will be made of the state of crisis Pep Guardiola’s side find themselves in, Spurs went to the Etihad Stadium – where the champions hadn’t lost in almost two years – without a raft of key players.
Both first choice central defenders in Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero missed the game, while Rodrigo Bentancur served the first of his seven-match suspension.
Postecoglou was forced into changes as a result, pairing Ben Davies and Radu Dragusin together at the heart of his defence to great effect. The Spurs boss also risked moving Dejan Kulusevski back out wide after a productive spell in midfield to bring James Maddison into the starting lineup following his recent dropping.
The moves certainly paid off, with Maddison bagging a brace on his 28th birthday while Kulusevski played a starring role in two of the four goals.
Guardiola was full of praise for the duo after the game, while Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville believes the pair were just two of five Spurs players who ran “all over” City in midfield.
“He’s [Guardiola] obviously put in Rico Lewis on the right of midfield to make it a bit more solid with Bernardo Silva, [Ilkay] Gundogan and Savinho on the left, Phil Foden just in front of them.
“They’ve been obliterated in midfield. I mean Kulusevski, [Heung-min] Son, Maddison, even [Pape Matar] Sarr and [Yves] Bissouma, they’ve really run all over them. They really have.”
