Tottenham vs Manchester City: Wembley flaws cost Spurs as Riyad Mahrez gives City deserved win

Manchester City beat Tottenham in a tight Premier League game that failed to live up to its lofty build-up.

Riyad Mahrez gave Pep Guardiola's side an early deserved lead when he arrived in the box to convert Raheem Sterling's low cross. He could have added a second shortly after but Hugo Lloris was equal to his effort and saved his shot with some added help of the near post.

Tottenham may feel that they could have taken something from this game, but Mauricio Pochettino's side were nowhere near their peak.

Trippier may not be the defender we all thought

During the World Cup and the late stages of the 2017/18 season, Kieran Trippier was working his way into people’s team of the year in that classic ‘best eleven’ pub-talk question. His wide play and deliveries from deep with Tottenham carried him into the World Cup high on good form. His relentless excellence continued in Russia, peaking at that free-kick against Croatia. But has his ability been exaggerated a little?

Guardiola was not blinded by his curling effort against Croatia in the World Cup semi-final and his side wasted no time in exploiting Trippier’s defensive vulnerabilities. Sterling had his international teammate in all kinds of trouble early on and profited from Trippier’s misjudgment of Ederson’s long kick. The right-back got caught under the long punt forward and headed the ball into Sterling’s path, setting him up to go past Toby Alderweireld and square the ball to Mahrez to open the scoring.

Trippier is a talented player with a huge role in this Tottenham side going forward, but his performance does make you wonder whether Serge Aurier or even highly-rated Kyle Walker-Peters may be better against top opposition. Pochettino likes to rotate his full backs and relies on them to be an integral part of his flowing system, but the ease at which City were able to exploit the spaces on the right side may tempt him to re-think.

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Tottenham’s use of Wembley falls to a pitiful low

Tottenham’s delayed stadium and over-reliance on the national stadium has been a complete embarrassment for the club, and against Manchester City it fell to a new low. A Premier League game of the highest order featuring two of the best sides was played on a pitch that had been used to host an NFL match just over 24 hours before kick-off. The result was a pitch that should never have been played on.

Although the playing surface contained sections that would not look out of place on the Hackney Marsh pitches, the actual impact it had on the ball was less than first feared. This is thanks to the Desso system in place that combines grass and plastic to form a playing surface, which means that underneath the green is no actual mud. However there were uneven areas and the appearance was a grim eyesore.

The giant NFL logo branded into the centre of the pitch was embarrassing for a game of such magnitude, this combined with the ugly brown patches and the field markings show just how Tottenham’s incompetence with their new stadium is becoming further prevalent, so much so you feel that they are lucky to escape this debacle without significant punishment.

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On top of this, the entire top tier of Wembley was almost empty with just an infrequent cluster of supports to show in various areas in the top-tier, a suggestion that the temporary home has lost its appeal and excitement amongst the supporters.

The visibly poor attendance combined with a shameful Premier League pitch created a strange atmosphere at Wembley which appeared to filter down to the players and served up a spectacle that was a fraction of what it really should have been.

Perhaps the ultimate punishment came when Erik Lamela was unable to covert a low cross and fired over, with the ball appearing to bobble as he stuck it.

Mahrez makes Manchester City a significantly better side

How can you improve on near-perfection? That is the question that Guardiola and his staff will have been mulling almost immediately after their season finished, more likely much before. One of the answers was sign an in-demand £60m winger, of course.

When he was at his best with Leicester he was playing the game at his pace, producing moments of sublime individual inspiration and dazzling defenders with his skill - the kind of talent that could have made him stick out in Guardiola’s methodical system.

There are instances where he has slowed down some flowing, attacking moves, even against Tottenham when a pass would be on for him but by the time he had decided he wanted to play the ball the gap would have closed. This is nothing new. However, these occasions are becoming less frequent and he is beginning to prove he can be a unique player in City’s side. He showed great attacking instinct to arrive in the box at the right time to take his goal and was finding his teammates with some eye-catching passes.

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Tottenham’s depth gives Pochettino cause for optimism

With Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen, Jan Vertonghen and Heung-Min Son not starting against Manchester City, the league’s best side by some way, Tottenham may have been fearing the worst. However, what followed will give Pochettino cause for optimism.

Erik Lamela and Lucas Moura worked vibrantly around Harry Kane and were supplying him with chances, whether this was directly through passing or by creating space for him with their creative runs around the opposition defence. Kane was caught out by CIty’s offside trap several times and saw a powerful effort narrowly fly over the bar on a frustrating night for the forward.

Moussa Sissoko even put in a powerful performance to show that he can be relied on to produce when the star players are missing. His surging runs forward had City scrambling to contain his pace and power, some of his deliveries were also very useful, albeit the quality to really make a difference was slightly lacking. However, against the lesser sides, where Spurs have sometimes struggled without their key men firing on all cylinders, Pochettino can be confident that his squad can see them though.

Manchester City send warning to the league’s elite

Liverpool and Chelsea had the added luxury, if you can call it that, of playing and beating lower-league sides to put pressure on the defending champions before they lined up against Tottenham. After playing Liverpool at Anfield, this was City’s next big test.

Guardiola’s side have improved in all areas this season and there was no let up in the relentless pursuit of a consecutive title.

Tottenham had often been a thorn in City’s seasons, but a win without needing to produce anything spectacular sets the tone for what will be another dominant season, one which will take some stopping by the chasing pack.