Premier League 2018/19: 3 reasons why Tottenham Hotspur lost to Manchester City

After the insanity of Wednesday night’s Champions League tie between the two sides, this afternoon’s Premier League match between Manchester City and Tottenham was always going to be somewhat of a comedown, and indeed, the match had nowhere near the amount of drama as the one earlier in the week.

Phil Foden’s 4th minute goal – his first in the Premier League – was enough to seal the game for City, who ran out 1-0 victors, but Spurs certainly had their chances and for a while it looked like Mauricio Pochettino’s men might do enough to steal a point.

But they couldn’t find the back of the net, and City ended up taking another step towards their second Premier League title in a row.

For Tottenham, the result was a painful one as it has allowed top 4 rivals Arsenal and Chelsea to close the gap on them, but Spurs fans will probably be confident of claiming at least 4th, given their remaining games come against Brighton, West Ham, Bournemouth and Everton.

Here are 3 reasons why Tottenham lost to Manchester City.

#1 Ederson's fantastic game

City's goalkeeper Ederson was brilliant in today's game

City’s goalkeeper Ederson came under some fire from a handful of critics midweek after the way he let in Heung-min Son’s first goal, but nobody would be able to criticise his performance this afternoon.

Simply put, the Brazilian had a genuinely fantastic game and while Bernardo Silva was rightly awarded Man of the Match, it was Ederson who arguably kept City alive with some amazing close-range saves throughout the game.

On numerous occasions, City’s central defensive partnership of John Stones and Aymeric Laporte parted like the Red Sea when Tottenham fired balls down the middle towards their attacking duo of Son and Lucas Moura, but despite both men having more than one one-on-one chance, Ederson was always able to stop them from scoring.

These weren’t run-of-the-mill saves either, although Ederson made them look that way. Lesser goalkeepers probably would’ve stood off Son and Lucas as they came forward, but Ederson seemed one step ahead throughout – as soon as either man had a sight of goal, the Brazilian was on them, closing the angle down and making it almost impossible to score.

More plaudits tend to be handed to Alisson Becker and David de Gea, but for me Ederson might be the best goalkeeper in the Premier League, and he definitely made his case with today’s performance.

#2 City were able to stifle Tottenham

City's midfield - including Ilkay Gundogan - kept Tottenham at bay by dominating possession

While City didn’t carve out too many chances after Foden’s opening goal – Tottenham’s defenders did a tremendous job to be fair, with Davinson Sanchez in particular having an impressive game – what they were able to do was largely stifle Spurs and prevent them from creating too many chances.

Sure, Mauricio Pochettino’s side did have some clear attempts on goal, but those largely came from defensive lapses rather than Spurs’ own endeavours.

That stifling came largely from City’s dominance in possession – 61% to Tottenham’s 39% - and while fans and observers alike often make too much of the tiki-taka style that Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona side mastered a decade ago, it’s hard to deny that unless your counter-attacks are almost perfectly clinical, it’s difficult to win a game of football if you can’t get hold of the ball.

And this afternoon, despite their best efforts, Spurs never really managed to get the ball and force City into a more defensive shape.

Bernardo Silva had a great game on the right-hand side of midfield – tormenting Ben Davies for almost the whole 90 minutes – but perhaps more plaudits should belong to City’s central midfield trio of Phil Foden, Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin de Bruyne – who was replaced by the equally impressive Fernandinho.

They never really allowed Christian Eriksen any room, and their efforts to keep hold of the ball paid off.

#3 Spurs’ lack of strength in depth shone through

Ben Davies struggled at left wing-back today

After such a titanic game on Wednesday it was clear that both teams were likely to make changes for today’s match, and while City were able to bring in the experienced John Stones for Vincent Kompany, and a pair of red-hot prospects in Phil Foden and Oleksandr Zinchenko for David Silva and Benjamin Mendy, it was Tottenham’s changes that raised more eyebrows – and largely showed the difference right now between the two sides.

Already unable to call upon the injured Harry Kane and Harry Winks, Spurs also brought in goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga, full-backs Juan Foyth and Ben Davies, and switched to a 3-5-2 formation, replacing midfielders Moussa Sissoko and Victor Wanyama with Davinson Sanchez and Eric Dier, the former slotting into the back three.

The changes had mixed results; Gazzaniga made some decent saves, Sanchez and Foyth were both generally solid, but Dier looked exactly like a man returning from quite a while on the shelf, while Davies was largely torn to shreds by Bernardo Silva for the entire game.

Only a fool would try to deny the fact that Mauricio Pochettino has done a fantastic job with his team this season, but there’ve also been far too many occasions where his threadbare squad have done just about enough to get past teams far lower on the totem pole.

Faced with the all-conquering City today, their fringe players just couldn’t do enough to rescue a point.

Spurs should probably still make the Champions League next season, and their reliance on Harry Kane is definitely overstated, but it’s also imperative that they reinforce their squad in the summer – otherwise they risk being muscled out by their bigger-spending rivals.