Five Star Spurs Show Ange Is No System Addict

Occasionally in life things happen that are quite difficult to comprehend. You can use the fact that around 71 million Americans recently voted for Donald Trump in the US election or 'Shuddap You Face' by Joe Dolce kept 'Vienna' by Ultravox, one of the great records of the 1980's of off the top of the UK Singles Chart as examples.

Blimey lads, cheer up!!

However, whatever your knowledge of history, music, politics or sport you'd be hard pressed to find something more unexpected than a Spurs 4 nil win at the Etihad on Saturday evening. All the ingredients were there for a thumping home win. Their legendary manager had just signed a two year contract extension despite losing four consecutive games for the first time in his career, their much missed defensive midfielder being celebrated for winning the Balon D'Or, four regulars returning to strengthen their team up against an opponent shorn of their International centre backs, with three full backs in the back four and five teenagers in the matchday squad who just happen to have lost their previous game against a side that hadn't won a match all season. At home.

The game started as expected with City dominating. In fact by the time Kulusevski (more of him later) floated a peach of a ball into the area for an unmarked Maddison to volley home in the thirteenth minute the volley was the first touch by a Spurs player in the City penalty area.

Almost balletic finish from Maddison

Haaland had already had three opportunities that on any other given day he may well of scored from. Luckily Vicario was to have a great day between the sticks so when City did get something on target, he was in the right place. You can add to this a quite gargantuan performance from the centre back pairing of Davies and Dragusin. If this is to be Ben's last season at the club, these are the occasions we're really going to miss our Mr Reliable.

Seven minutes after the first goal, the improbability meter shot up another notch when Maddsion picked up a sloppy ball from Gvardiol, forced by Spurs brilliant press by the way. He pushed the ball across to Sonny in the D, who held the ball until releasing with perfect timing a reverse pass back to Maddison who lifted the ball over Ederson to put Spurs two up.

The home support were stunned, almost to the level of the away support and the people watching at home on their televisions. City were wobbling and you could see that thing that happens when teams lack confidence where they start to look at each other for someone to blame or someone to get a grip of the situation.

Half-time arrived with the game flowing backwards and forwards. Spurs giving as good as they got, Pape Sarr covering nearly every blade of grass and the defence standing firm. At this point I posted this.....

.....because this is what always happens isn't it? Bissouma, who'd set a new Premier League record when he was booked after fourteen seconds for hauling down Foden continued to dominate the midfield, along with Sarr picking up loose balls and winning 50/50 challenges. Then seven minutes into the second half the games real magic moment occured. Again Davies got in and intercepted a ball that eventually fell to Kulusevski. After a couple of nutmegs, some brute strength and a lovely one-two with Sonny he broke down the left, looked up and swept a ball across the pitch towards Solanke. It was slightly over hit but our brilliant centre forward held the ball, looked up and laid a perfect pass back to the onrushing Porro who smashed it into the far top corner of the net.

Pedro celebrates his goal by blinding the away fans with his Hampsteads.

At this point Pep was looking a bit like me when I sat my Physics O Level. I knew why I was there but I wasn't really sure if I could do anything that would make it a good day.  Spurs on the other hand were growing in stature and confidence. Ange uses the word 'relentless' quite a lot and this performance was a hallmark of that thinking.

Just after the hour Johnson replaced Sonny who's obviously still not quite 100% match fit. Brennan found himself in acres of space on the left when Solanke broke through a couple of challenges. He chose instead to go right to Kulusevski who teased Gvardiol all the way to the box where he cut back inside and forced Ederson into a fine save. By this time our ginger haired Swede was completely dominating the match. This is just another string to the bow of the great season he's been having so far. Some facts, before the weekends game:-

You can add to this the fact he's covered more ground than just about everyone else in Europe as well. Not long after more clever play from Kulu put Johnson in, he made it around Ederson but couldn't quite force in the fourth hitting the post. From one of the only loose pieces of play from Spurs in the last eighty minutes of the game, Bissouma mis-controlled leading to Haaland hitting the bar. 

For those of us that enjoy some 'old-school' action, substitute de Bruyne hacked a bit late into Sarr and then tried to accuse him of play acting. This didn't go down well and the Spurs players were in like a shot to back up their team mate. That's what we want to see.

He's here, he's there, he's every f**king where.

Ange made three late changes. Werner for Maddison, Spence for Odogie and Bergvall for Sarr. Three minutes into stoppage time Bergvall forced Grealish into a rash pass that went straight to Werner. This led to a possibly unique Premier League moment when a wide player goes passed Kyle Walker like he's standing still. Werner put the afterburners on and slid a lovely ball across the area which Brennan Johnson finished in a classic Brennan Johnson way by sliding it in at the far post. 

The away end went bonkers, the home sections were by this time almost empty anyway but the last remaining people filed out. I thought it was great that both Kulusevski and Spence went straight to the prostrate Werner to celebrate with him because they know he's been struggling and obviously wanted to show their support to a team mate.

The game ended soon afterwards. The away fans had been chanting 'You're Getting Sacked In The Morning' at Pep which I'm pretty sure won't happen although City have hit a sort of brick wall. Its a new experience for him personally and it'll be interesting to see how he goes about sorting it out.

It is the nature of the season so far that straight after this game the general consensus was that Spurs will probably lose at home to Fulham next weekend. Before that however, we have another European match on Thursday at home to Roma who are now managed by one Claudio Ranieri. They've had a poor start to the season, hence bringing Ranieri back for a third stint as manager, so if Spurs can take advantage of this and win they'll almost be there with regard to qualifying for the next stage of the competition.

With Fulham on Sunday on his mind I expect Ange to bring two or three of the youngsters in. Surely after Saturday confidence will be high throughout the squad, even amongst those that didn't kick a ball at the 'Deki'had. But then again this is Spurs, so who can possibly know what's going to happen?