Manchester City Beats Tottenham With a Narrow Win, 1-0

Manchester City healed quickly after a disastrous loss against Tottenham Hotspurs this Wednesday. The Citizens responded today, by defeating the same rival with a narrow, but very important victory, 1-0.

They really didn’t have too many choices because of the current situation in the standings. Liverpool was in front of the Sky-Blues two steps, and three points were simply a must today at Etihad.

Guardiola spoke about that after the game, saying that his players did an incredible job by giving their maximum at the moment.

“We cannot afford to drop points and we have to keep fighting the end. After defeat on Wednesday, the last two days were very tough for us,” the Spaniard stated and praised his crew. “The effort the players had was incredible.”

Let’s relive that opener from young Phil 😍 #MCITOT

pic.twitter.com/5X8ulTxR3w

— Manchester City US (@ManCityUS) April 20, 2019

Youn Phil Foden netted the only goal in the meeting after just five minutes. The teenager became the third youngest scorer in Citizen’s history with 18 years and 328 days. To add, this was his 12th game for the Sky-Blues.

Sergio Aguero created the perfect position for his teammate who didn’t have any troubles with executing. Foden mentioned that after the match, and said that he uses every chance to learn from his older colleagues.

“Kun (Aguero) did great to head it back across goal and luckily I was there. I want to get in the box and score goals. I look up to every player in this team and try and learn from them.”

The Citizens were aggressive right from the start which again paid off like three days ago. But afterward, the defensive line did their part of the job very well. This was the first event after three straight in which they kept clean sheets.

Unlike this Wednesday, there haven’t been too many opportunities, but still, there were several of them on both sides. Sane, Foden and Bernardo Sila twice in the late period of the first half were in a position to beat Gazzaniga, but they all failed to provide a decent finishing.

Among the Spurs, Son made the majority of problems for the home team, but the South Korean didn’t have proper support from his teammates. On a couple of occasions he outsmarted the entire defense but failed to execute. Also, Ederson stopped several attacks, and according to Pochettino, City’s goalkeeper was the man of this match.

“Both teams competed really well and we deserved more. Ederson was the man of the match,” Poch said.

The Argentinian coach is aware that Citizens aren’t the best rival to collect points in their quest for top 4 places. Pochettino is more focused on the next three games, against Brighton and West Ham at home, and Bournemouth on the road. Those three contest will define the domestic season for the Spurs.

On the other hand, City won, but suffered a huge blow. Kevin De Bruyne had to leave the game in the 38th minute of the game because of an injury. This could complicate things a lot for the champions who have a local derby in front of them.

The degree of his injury is still not revealed, but for now, the first prognosis is suggesting that the Belgian international will no doubt miss the game against United.

The derby of Manchester takes place this Wednesday, and it is the finale of the Premiership race for Sky-Blues. If they manage to defeat the biggest rivals at the Old Trafford, they will most likely defend the Premier League crown. If not, Liverpool will gain an edge over them, and their prospects of winning the title after almost three decades would be very very good.

In that case, the season for the Citizens would turn out to be one of the worst in history. Primary goals would be unfulfilled, and the way they dropped two trophies in just a few days will be the source of massive frustrations for the whole organization and the fans.

City has 86 points right now, Liverpool 85. Tottenham is third with 67, Arsenal and Chelsea have 66, with the note that Gunners have a match in hand, while United sits sixth with 64.

The ending in the Premiership promises a lot of excitement.