“Last season they were there with the last two or three games to be champions and this year they are still playing at a high level”.
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Manchester City’s winning start to the English Premier League is over – and the title favorites might just have seen close up their biggest rival for the trophy.
Pep Guardiola believes City’s 2-0 loss at Tottenham Hotspur is a chance for the Blues to analyse their performance in the season so far. We had problems to control the game.
And Guardiola says Mauricio Pochettino’s men must be considered as title contenders. It was hard. we lost a lot of balls. We can not achieve points if we are not making a good performance.
Specifically addressing Kane’s recovery from damaged ankle ligaments suffered against Sunderland, Pochettino added: “He is very positive, the scan was very positive last Monday and the expectation is that he can be available sooner than we expected”. The visitors only had themselves to blame for conceding in the ninth minute.
But the home side made the breakthrough after 71 minutes when substitute Anthony Martial picked up possession inside the area and curled a fine finish past Grant. Tottenham did the double over City past year when Manuel Pellegrini was in charge of the Manchester club.
After stopping a City counter-attack in its tracks, Spurs broke themselves, Son slipping a pass through to Alli, who swept a first-time shot low past Claudio Bravo’s outstretched right hand.
The manager also insisted he will continue to let the Tottenham players decide who takes penalties despite Erik Lamela missing a spot-kick during his side’s win over City. It was so aggressive [at Espanyol] there was high pressing and many things and still the way they played is quite similar. “It was a battle on the pitch, and I am very pleased we won and showed our philosophy”.
Victory for Spurs this week would be somewhat less of a surprise but the City boss admitted his side face a major challenge against a team of whom he freely admits he is a major fan.
Manchester United couldn’t take advantage, only drawing 1-1 at home to struggling Stoke, but Arsenal scraped a 1-0 win at Burnley thanks to a scrambled goal with virtually the last touch of the game. The other victories have all come against teams in the bottom half of the table.
City remain without captain Vincent Kompany, midfielder Fabian Delph and playmaker Kevin De Bruyne due to muscular injuries, but Guardiola gave optimistic updates on their progress.
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Until Tottenham’s stadium is fully paid off and they regularly achieve Champions League, maybe Mauricio Pochettino will convince Daniel Levy to open up his checkbook. It is normal to the process, sometimes it happens and it can help us improve.
