2  Kyle WALKER
14  Aymeric LAPORTE
30  Nicolas OTAMENDI
11  OleksandR ZINCHENKO

17  Kevin de BRUYNE  (c)
16  RODRIGO  (21  David SILVA)
  8  Ilkay GUNDOGAN

20  Bernardo SILVA  (26  Riyad MAHREZ  80)
10  Segio AGUERO    (  9  Gabriel JESUS  66)
  7  Raheem STERLING      

Unused subs: 
  1  Claudio BRAVO
27  Joao CANCELO
25  FERNANDINHO
47  Phil FODEN

16  Kyle WALKER-PETERS
  6  Davinson SANCHEZ
  4  Toby ALDERWEIRELD
  3  Danny ROSE

28  Tanguy NDOMBELE
  8  Harry WINKS  (27  Lucas MOURA  56  )

17  Moussa SISSOKO
11  Erik LAMELA    (18  Giovani LO CELSO  85)
23  Christian ERIKSEN  (29  Oliver SKIPP  90+1)

10  Harry KANE

Unused subs: 
22  Paulo GAZZANIGA
  5  Jan VERTONGHEN
33  Ben DAVIES
15  Eric DIER
 

Controversy once again dominated the after-game discussions about the last minute disallowed goal by VAR for Manchester City that prevented them securing a 3-2 win, which their play might have deserved, but Tottenham conversion of two of their three chances brought a point back from the North-West.

Pochettino restored Eriksen to the side and kept Rose in and Vertonghen side-lined, although on the bench this time.  City were at more or less full strength, only missing Leroy Sane, who will miss the majority of the season with a cruciate ligament injury that put a stop to his move to Bayern Munich.

For the first five minutes, Spurs could hardly get near the ball and had trouble playing the ball to a navy blue shirt and when Walker got away on their right past Sanchez, he squared it for Sterling, but Walker-Peters blocked his shot. When the ball came back in after the corner was cleared, de  Bruyne scuffed a weak effort along the ground and straight at Hugo Lloris. A couple more corners were won when Spurs were blocking the ball, with the second to the near post, where Rodrigo went down under Lamela’s challenge, with Erik’s arms all over him, but not really exerting enough effort to make it a nailed-on penalty. As it was, the VAR team didn’t think it worth brining to the referee’s attention.

Spurs got into the City penalty area after 15 minutes, when they broke on City and Sissoko’s right wing cross was a little too high for Lamela at the back stick and then Moussa ended a great run by Walker-Peters, who out-paced Sterling, but when the ball was played to Sissoko, he had gone offside.  From that free-kick, City moved forward on the right and de Bruyne’s cross found Sterling coming in behind the Spurs defence to head the ball across Lloris to give City the lead in the 20th minute, Spurs should have been aware of the runs that the England winger makes, so, leaving him a free run was going to end up with the inevitable.

When Tottenham did put a few passes together, Ndombele played a straight ball from the edge of the centre circle in City’s half to Lamela and he moved it forward a couple of strides and side-footed the ball low past Ederson’s dive to his right to level the scores. It was a very good pass and a well taken chance that hadn’t looked like happening in the previous 22 minutes, but the keeper's positioning to the left of the middle of his goal must be questioned.

With the game settling into a bit of a midfield battle, de Bruyne suddenly produced a low ball into the near past from the right and Aguero made his run timed to perfection to steer the ball deftly across Hugo and into the net for 2-1 on 34 minutes. It was a well made goal, but again, we needed to be closer to the man who scored, but also closer to the man who put the ball across.

De Bruyne was put into the same position he created the goal form and this time he pulled it back to the penalty area and Gundogan tried to turn it in first time but put his shot a foot wide of Hugo’s left post. And the goalkeeper had to be sharp when Sterling played the ball back to Zinchenko, 25 yards out and although his shot didn’t pack much punch, it almost squirmed out of Hugo’s grasp. Trying to play the ball around de Bruyne, Hugo nearly lost the ball a few yards out from goal, but Davinson used his strength to hold them off and it was tricky to work the ball out of the danger area.  Bernardo Silva was trying to get around Rose, Sissoko and Sanchez with some drag-backs, but when the ball went high into the air, Rose was determined to make it his and Silva didn’t go for the ball and was distressed that the free-kick went against him. It wasn’t the first foul he had made and certainly not the first on Rose.

Half-time saw the teams depart for their team-talks, but we wondered how Pochettino might change the side to spark a bit more attacking play to push City back. Both teams remained the same as Spurs got the second half underway.

Pushing onto the Spurs back four and playing so high up, Spurs needed to find some runners from deep to get behind City. In contrast, City were able to pick passes out from their back four and de Bruyne moved into the space in front of him and Alderweireld had to block his shot. From the corner, the ball went to Zinchenko on the left and Lloris had to make a good stop to keep his effort out after it took a deflection off Harry Kane’s leg. City wanted a penalty from it, when Rodrigo ran into Sanchez.

Sterling and Aguero set up de Bruyne for a shot, but the City captain fired it wide from the edge of the box, then Sterling set up Aguero running off him to his left, but he blazed it too high. Bernardo Silva had a better chance when Ndombele tried to intercept and it went straight into the City man’s run, but he put a low shot too close to Lloris to allow him to save. Lloris also had to be alert, when Sterling burst into the box and Hugo timed his rush out well to block the run.

Spurs finally got a bit of possession in the opposition half and it ended when Lamela lifted a ball into the box and Eriksen tried to chest it down, but it was cleared for a corner. Winks went off before it was taken and when the ball came in from Lamela’s right wing corner kick, substitute Lucas Moura beat Walker in the air to guide the ball past Ederson to pull Spurs back to 2-2. A fantastic substitution by Poch, who saw Lucas score 19 seconds after entering the game, but that was just waiting for the corner to be taken.

Walker-Peters got caught in possession by Sterling and although he didn’t do anything with it, the ball came to Rodrigo and his shot was pushed over the bar by Lloris. Hugo wasn’t quite as convincing when the ball came in, as his attempted punch didn’t get the ball and Bernardo Silva turned the ball towards goal. With Danny Rose on the line, the ball dropped onto the bar and Hugo pounced on it before Otamendi could react. Rose was in action again from  the next corner, when a vicious ball into the six-yard box forced him to make a very good clearance. Danny was involved again when Aguero made out he had been pole-axed when Rose stood his ground in the box. It was an embarrassing piece of play-acting and followed de Bruyne’s dive when Sanchez didn’t touch him as he went to go past him.

Sanchez showed good determination to block substitute Jesus’ shot after he ran into the box and when Sissoko was brushed off the ball, a cross from the left found Jesus, but as he tried to bring the ball down, just a few yards out, Toby flew in to make a great challenge and force the striker to put his effort wide. Ndombele was looking tired, as he did in the second half last week, but it was City who made a change, with David Silva coming on for Rodrigo. Before that, Moura got to the ball before Zinchenko after keeping the ball in well, but his ball across for Kane was cut out by Otamendi. City broke from our corner but Jesus got in the way of his cross-field pass aimed at Bernardo Silva.  When de Bruyne’s cross flicked off Rose, Jesus beat Walker-Peters in the air and his header went narrowly wide of Hugo’s right hand post. With ten minutes left, Tottenham seemed to drop deeper and City brought Mahrez on for Bernardo Silva. Spurs had a breakaway, when Sissoko and Moura linked well on the right, but Lamela’s pass that was intended for Kane was blocked and the chance was gone. Pochettino took Erik off and Giovani Lo Celso came on for his debut.

Ndombele nicked the ball off a couple of City players as they looked to get into the box and Pochettino brought on Oliver Skipp on the 90 minute mark, taking off Christian Eriksen to add some fresh legs to the side. When Lo Celso had come on, he slotted into the right of midfield, with Moura moving to the left. However, with Zinchenko suffering with a pulled hamstring, but having to continue with City having made all their subs. It would have seemed to make sense to play Moura against a struggling full back.

Anyway, another corner came in and a mis-directed header fell to Gabriel Jesus, who took a touch and curled the ball past defenders and keeper into the bottom corner of the net to hand City an injury time winner 91 37. But history repeated itself, with City fans being silenced when the screen showed that the goal was disallowed by VAR, which picked up that the ball had touched Laporte’s arm and that earned Tottenham a point with two of their three shots on target producing goals. While City had the lion’s share of possession and many more shots than Spurs, but only eight on target. Spurs defended well, but that was because City were using the space that they found and were pressing hard to make it difficult to play the way we wanted. Why lese would Kane have had so few touches and was fouled so often ?

We didn’t park the bus but tried to frustrate City as much as possible. Not one of our best performances, but as happened last week, we did enough to get something from the match. It isn’t possible to go for all out attack every game and with injuries and suspension preventing Pochettino from putting out his strongest side, it is a good point to take away from the Etihad.

Fortunate maybe, but you make your own and ride your luck, while City were very good on the day, restricting the way that Tottenham were able to operate, but there will be hard matches like this and to improve on our result of last season there shows that there is a grit and determination to get something from games that may be looking to go against you.  And at least we didn't ship 5 !!

Stanford Rivers

Last season they wanted a handball against Llorente in the Champions League game up there and now their moaning has changed the laws, they want them changed back because it went against them.  Expect a big money move for Manchester City to buy VAR !