In the world of football, is there a surer bet than that Manchester City, led by Josep Guardiola, who won the Premier League title, will do what they need to do, in other words, win and keep winning?
In the last three times he has been involved in close battles over the line under Guardiola, there has been little room for error, but he has never slipped. Their streak of victories was long and devastating. City are once again close to winning their fifth title under Guardiola, and their eighth successive win under the most intense pressure.
For one night only, everyone associated with Arsenal became a Spurs fan. They desperately wanted their hated rival to do something for their neighbors. Regardless of Spurs’ result, Arsenal will be in control of the race by Sunday’s final day.
That didn’t happen because that’s not the case with City. No matter how close the game got in the final stages, it must have been excruciating for Arsenal to watch. That’s because City were in the lead thanks to Erling Haaland’s goal and Spurs had a chance to equalize.
Stefan Ortega was City’s unexpected hero. The goalkeeper, who came on as a substitute for the injured Ederson, made a huge block to deny Spurs substitute Dejan Kulusevski. However, that was broken in the 86th minute when Brennan Johnson robbed Manuel Akanji and cleared Son Heung-min. Once again, while north London was holding its breath for various reasons, Ortega came to the rescue. Guardiola fell to the ground in the technical area.
City survived and enjoyed a calm finale with Haaland scoring 2-0 from the penalty spot after Pedro Polo fouled another substitute, Jeremy Doku. Beating West Ham on Sunday will certainly see City crowned champions again.
There was only one pre-match topic of conversation in north London and only one question for Spurs fans. Who were they supporting? This was incredibly strange considering they were aiming for a Champions League finish, and it was to be expected since it was Arsenal.
What does non-Spurs support look like from Spurs support? And is it possible to get a consensus among a group of 60,000 people? If you look for some perspective within the fanbase, you’ll probably find it . There was one feeling that everyone in the home seats could follow. There were chants of “If you hate Arsenal, stand up!” they stood.
Guardiola needed time to iron things out as Postecoglou surprised him with his tactics of leaving gaps at the back, even if he focused on attack. take risks.
Postecoglou was without eight injured players, including three left-backs, and had asked Micky van de Ven to shuffle from central defense to fill the problem positions. He also started in a new-look boxed midfield with attackers Johnson and Son placed high and wide. Who says there’s no plan B?
What was interesting was that there was a lot of rotation, with Papu Sarr and James Maddison leading the press in the central areas, with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Rodrigo Bentancur behind them. Pedro Polo, as usual, stood up from right-back and turned to the side.
The atmosphere in the first half could best be described as subdued. Perhaps the home fans were just trying to understand what Postecoglou was doing. I can’t say it didn’t work until the interval.
City felt like they could find space, especially on the right. I went to the area where Van de Ven had been asked to interview. Kyle Walker cantered there several times in the early runs. I looked around at the other City players and their eyes lit up.
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City had chances in the first half, but in terms of finding the killer pass, they came close but not quite. Phil Foden’s volley from Hojbjerg’s slice was well saved by Guglielmo Vicario. Josko Gvardiol fired a volley wide of the target from a difficult angle.
Just before half-time, Radu Dragusin was delighted when Van de Ven headed home Bernardo Silva’s shot that bounced off goal after being blocked by Erling Haaland. In the build-up match against Foden, the flag was raised for offside. It was the domain of VAR.
City made mistakes on the ball that added to the strange atmosphere, and Spurs had a few flickers, but their biggest mistake was Johnson feeding Bentancur after a great diagonal from Hojbjerg. It was the beginning of the time. Bentancur’s shot was touched over by Ederson. There were times when Spurs acquired players but were unable to connect the dots.
City looked to have stayed a little more huddled on the field before the start of the second half, but it wasn’t hard to imagine what was said. The season was on the brink. They needed to play with more intensity.
That was evident from the restart, with Kevin De Bruyne fully stretching Vicario after Spurs lost the ball trying to build up from the back. The home side almost took the lead when Son got on to Johnson’s low cross and tried to sink Ederson, but the goalkeeper closed the space. Then City did.
Foden did this successfully, winning the ball and slipping out to the left before crossing. The ball went to the other side and Silva got on it and brought on De Bruyne. The spurs were growing. De Bruyne sent in a low cross, which Haaland moved into and found the back of the net. “Are you watching Arsenal?” shouted a Spurs fan. Television cameras caught two of them doing Poznan City style.
Tensions boiled over. Bentancur got heated as he took his seat in the technical area to vent his frustrations when he was replaced by Kulusevski. So was Ederson, who was sent off with a head injury after being hit by Cristian Romero. It’s about Ortega coming in and how he’s going to make a difference.
