Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Manchester City: Alli Helps Spurs Close Gap On League Leaders

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Tottenham beat title rivals Manchester City thanks to an Aleksander Kolarov own goal and a strike from Dele Alli in a pulsating clash at White Hart Lane.

Spurs started with Heung-min Son as their most prominent attacker, with Erik Lamela coming in for the dropped Vincent Janssen, while John Stones came in for Gael Clichy with Fernando replacing Ilkay Gundogan.

The game started at a frenetic pace, with Son firing over within seconds of kick-off, before Jesus Navas’cross created havoc in the Spurs box, eventually being cleared.

With the game starting so quickly, it wasn’t long before the first goal came along, and it was Spurs who took the lead. Danny Rose whipped in a cross from the left after Victor Wanyama regained possession in midfield, and Aleks Kolarov could only divert the ball beyond Claudio Bravo into his own net to gift Spurs the lead.

Spurs continued in the ascendency, and Christian Eriksen whistled a free-kick inches past Bravo’s right-hand post. City began to grow into the game, with Silva, Sterling and Aguero becoming more influential towards the half-hour mark, but without creating any clear-cut chances.

Aguero hit the target from a free-kick, which was parried to safety by Hugo Lloris.

Although City were seeing more possession, Spurs doubled their lead in the 37th minute. The trio of Erik Lamela, Son and Dele Alli broke with pace, and Son threaded Alli through on goal, with the England international making no mistake, sweeping home from close range to give his side a two-goal lead going into the break.

Victor Wanyama was arguably the most impressive performer on the pitch, and forced the first save after the interval from Bravo, who tipped the Kenyan’s long range strike past the post.

City then came very close to reducing the deficit, with Lloris’ save from Aguero’s strike hitting the post and being cleared from danger by Danny Rose. Brazilian midfielder Fernando couldn’t make a meaningful impact on the game, and was replaced with the more attacking minded Ilkay Gundogan.

Before the German could make any impact, Spurs had the chance to go 3-0 up. Dele Alli was brought down by Fernandinho but, without regular penalty taker Harry Kane absent due to injury, Erik Lamela couldn’t beat Bravo from the penalty spot as the Chilean easily saved the poor spot-kick.

Pep Guardiola brought on potent goalscorer Kelechi Iheanacho in the hope of finding a way back into the game, before Eric Dier, returning from injury, replaced a fatigued Moussa Sissoko. Iheanacho had a good chance on goal having been played through by Silva, only to be denied by Lloris from close range.

City started to mount more sustained periods of possession and pressure as the game headed towards the final ten minutes. Aguero forced a terrific save from Lloris, after the Argentine’s strike was deflected offKyle Walker.

City continued to press, but were desperately missing the creativity of injured midfielder Kevin De Bruyne, and couldn’t find past the impressive centre-back combination of Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireldas Spurs saw out not only an impressive win, but perhaps an even more impressive clean sheet against their free-scoring rivals to cut the gap between the two sides to just one point.

90min