City Spooked At The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

A surprising first goal scorer led to a surprising performance which in turn led to a surprising result. That would be my own personal summing up of last nights Carabao Cup match against Manchester City.

Ange had brought Archie Gray into the side at right back, Dragusin into the back four with Van der Ven moving across to left back. Pape Sarr started in midfield alongside Bentancur and Kulusevski with the much maligned Timo Werner on the left side of attack with Solanke in the middle and Johnson on the right.

City of course made changes, although not as many as some had predicted after Guardiola had previously said how low this competition sat on his list of priorities. Five minutes in, an excellent move starting right at the back with Dragusin and involving a deft flick by Johnson and a pinpoint cross from Kulusevski led to Timo Werner providing a fine finish to put Spurs ahead. Just read that line again to make sure I got that right. 

Timo proves he can hit a cow's arse with a banjo

Things got even better twenty minutes later when a short corner routine gave Pape Sarr the chance to curl in a cracking shot from outside the area to put Spurs two nil up. Sarr had been booked which eventually led to him being replaced at half-time by Bissouma. By that time City had got on top in the game and Nunes had scored at the far post with literally the last kick of the half.

Now under normal circumstances the goal right on half time should had led to a complete collapse from Spurs in the second half. City also made changes bringing on Kovacic and Gvardiol. Pep certainly proved he wasn't bothered about this competition on the hour by bringing on another unknown, Bernardo Silva.

Rather unusually for Spurs in a home game at least, they had less possession than their opponents who carved out a lot of what I would call half chances. At the end of the game City had only managed two shots on target, Spurs playing counter attacking football for the first time really since those glory days under Antonio Conte had had five shots on target themselves.

Kulusevski had another fine match and forced City keeper Ortega into his best save after he broke through down the right and shot left footed for the far post. The best Spurs opportunity had fallen to Richarlison when Gvardiol thought he was fielding from the boundary at Lords and chucked a throw-in right past Stones leaving Richy with only the keeper to beat. Unfortunately he shot straight at him. 

POTM Kulu celebrates Sarr's goal or maybe Werner just stood on his foot.

It looked as though that would cost Spurs when following a corner, Vicario flapped at the ball like a fish out of water and a volley that was heading just inside the post was diverted wide by Bissouma. From that corner Gvardiol headed over. 

The end of the game brought celebrations on and off the pitch. Hardly surprising after the car crash that had been the weekends performance at Selhurst Park. This was of course a much improved performance, it could hardly have been any worse, and the reward was another home tie in the quarters against a team from Manchester. Unfortunately, its United and not Salford or Stockport but being as there's only Premier League teams left in the competition it could have been worse.

Nothing in football can ever be 100% brilliant as it looks like a lengthy lay off for van der Ven who left the field after thirteen minutes with suspected hamstring trouble. Romero also went off although Ange said that was more down to tiredness. With inform Aston Villa looming on the horizon this weekend Spurs need as many players fit and firing as possible.

We're all be hoping Sonny is fit for Villa and I expect Porro to be back in. Apart from that I reckon Ange will have seen enough from Dragusin to keep him in to replace van der Ven. In midfield, apart from Kulusevski, your guess is as good as mine. I can't see him leaving out Solanke or Johnson. 

Villa will be very tough. I just hope we see the commitment and bit of tactical flexibility that was apparent last night and who knows we may well get the League season back on track. Come On You Spurs!!