Death, taxes, Tottenham Hotspur beating Manchester City at the Emirates. One year after dismantling Pep Guardiola’s team at the Etihad, Spurs returned with a new manager and a similar result. City looked threatening for much of the first half, but Tottenham got goals from Brennan Johnson and an unlikely rebounded effort from new signing Palhinha, and Spurs escaped Manchester with a 2-0 win. It’s only the second time in Pep’s entire career that he’s suffered successive home defeats to the same opponent. I love this bit, it’s so good. Long may it continue.
It was a dramatic week for Tottenham in the transfer market, but you can’t argue with the results on the pitch. Thomas Frank’s Spurs are now unbeaten and un-scored upon in their first two matches of the new season, and doesn’t THAT feel good?
Here are my match reactions.
* Tottenham Hotspur beating Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City is still the funniest ongoing bit in sports.
* Final xG: City 1.51 — 1.02 Spurs, with City having 61% possession. lol…lmao
* Gotta say I really expected a back three like what we saw when Spurs played PSG. Frank’s decision to go with a back four means he at least intended to press-and-squish City, mostly bypassing the midfield, but the first half was spent mostly playing out of the back.
* This is the first time we’ve seen Sarr ostensibly playing as a 10 with Palhinha and Bentancur behind him. It’s an interesting experiment though I’m not sure how successful it was. Sarr has plenty of industry but had a harder time linking the ball to the offensive players.
* Credit to Spurs for defending stoutly against what already looks like a fairly polished City offense. Spurs absolutely are a better defending team than last season, and that’s not nothing. It’s not GOALS, but it’s not nothing.
* Tottenham’s goal really was the Brennan Johnson Experience™ - does virtually nothing for the majority of the half, frequently lazy getting back from offside positions, and then makes an amazing run to one touch a goal in transition. No pass, no dribble, only shoot. The Lionel Messi of Nacer Chadlis. (Subsequent discussion in Slack also mentioned the St. Louis Cardinals’ Adam Dunn)
* I have no idea how the ref didn’t call a foul and DOGSO on James Trafford for the incident against Kudus near the end of the first half. That was one billion percent a foul, even if it happened outside the box.
* Palhinha is exactly who I thought he is: a really good tackler and defender but my word that guy just cannot pass the ball. Spurs were trying to play out from the back and Palhinha was like a black hole of possession. If we’re going to play him, and we will, my god do we need a midfield passer in this squad.
* BUTTTTTTTTTT what if he can just score goals? Like that one?
* I have to appreciate Tottenham’s low-key attempts to take the air out of the ball in the second half. At one point Mohammed Kudus wasted 35 seconds before taking a standard free kick. Dark Arts.
* The match official was garbage today — blew several calls including an obvious foul on James Trafford that could’ve been a DOGSO — but at least he was consistently garbage on both sides of the ball after failing to call a Micky van de Ven foul in Spurs’ box.
* Kudus continues to impress. That guy’s motor is just unreal, and he had quite a few nice moments in possession. I was wrong, he’s worth every penny Spurs spent on him.
* Wilson Odobert had a nice little shift today, looking bright on the left and getting free for a few half chances despite my attempts to loan him to Roma this week. He seems to be ahead of Tel at the moment.
* Outstanding defensive performance today. Both central defenders were well up for this match, and Guglielmo Vicario made some wonderful saves.
* Next two matches feel very winnable — home to Bournemouth, away to West Ham. Feeling pretty good today, fam.
* Eberechi Eze — who needs him?
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