LONDON – There were moments on Friday night when it looked like Manchester City were determined to extend their streak of never scoring at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but finally, after 88 minutes and 18 shots, Nathan Aké finally forced one. Thus, it was still worth a place in the fifth round of the FA Cup and fulfilled Pep Guardiola's great ambition to finally “score a goal against Spurs away from home.”
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More than that, however, they earned a 1-0 victory in a difficult stadium that will have the rest of the Premier League watching nervously. It was around this time last season that City were beaten 1-0 here and then didn't lose another game until May on their way to their historic treble.
The worry for title contenders like Liverpool and Arsenal is that this time Guardiola's team is kicking off a couple of weeks early. For all the talk about how appropriate it would be for Jurgen Klopp to get a title-winning farewell, City have shown once again that they don't often lose at key moments during the campaign. Last time, they won in the 90th minute at Newcastle. This time it was the winner in the 88th minute against Tottenham.
“Football is about scoring and not about conceding,” Guardiola said. “The statistics were really good today, but if you look at the statistics from the past [matches] We couldn't score or win and it was similar to today. We are really happy. Of course, winning against this team away from home, but also passing.”
MAN CITY SCORES THEIR FIRST GOAL IN THE NEW TOTTENHAM STADIUM IN THEIR SIXTH GAME!
Nathan Ake is City's hero 🔥 pic.twitter.com/RzoYAsanQz
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) January 26, 2024
After almost six games in five years and more than 101 shots combined, it was perhaps destined to be a controversial close-range strike that would finally break City's barren run at Tottenham. Aké achieved it after Guglielmo Vicario took advantage of a corner taken by Kevin De Bruyne at the last moment, under pressure from Rúben Dias, causing chaos among the 9,000 visiting fans behind the goal.
Spurs were unlucky to have the ball bounce off Micky van de Ven and set up Aké to score from 6 inches while their players were so convinced of a foul on Vicario that they surrounded referee Paul Tierney, but it would have been a soft call if so. was provided. To his credit, Ange Postecoglou decided not to pursue the complaints in his post-match press conference.
“The referee looked at it and I guess the VAR took a good look at it and didn't see anything wrong with it,” he said. “The decision was made and we have to accept it.”
It certainly wasn't the most beautiful goal Guardiola's City have ever scored and perhaps the most impressive aspect of their performance was the way they were able to nullify a team as aggressive as Postecoglou's Spurs. For the first time under the Australian, they failed to score and over the course of the 90 minutes only managed one shot, when Stefan Ortega ran out to smother Brennan Johnson's second-half effort. And for the first time since February 2020, Tottenham did not have a single shot in the first half of a home game.
Aké's winning goal wasn't pretty, but it was still deserved.
“We performed incredibly well,” Guardiola said. “All [pleased me], from minute one to 95 minutes. We know the reality of how they train every day and how they behave. They [Tottenham] We are an exceptional team and we minimize them. “We create a lot in every game and we have courage with or without the ball, so I'm very happy.”
Postecoglou added: “We fought hard to stay in the game but, to be honest, all we did was stay in the game. That wasn't going to be enough tonight.”
While Guardiola used his post-match press conference to hint at the things City hope to gain this season, Postecoglou felt the need to put his first season with Spurs into perspective. He has been brought in to help the club end a trophy drought stretching back to 2008, which is not easy when Guardiola's serial winners are one of the teams standing in their way.
“They are the benchmark and we are not there yet,” Postecoglou said. “They're eight or nine years older than us. I hope people get a little perspective on the team we're trying to be. They're at an advanced stage and we're at the early stages.”
Postecoglou will hope it is not long before he can point to some tangible success while Guardiola appears as determined as ever to capitalize on City's golden era. He has ticked yet another box on his CV by finally getting a goal (and a win) away from home against Spurs. Ominously for everyone else, City remain on course to add a couple more entries before the season ends.
