Premier League 2019/20: 3 reasons why Tottenham Hotspur drew with Manchester City

#2 City at their best are like a video game boss

The imperious Kevin De Bruyne set up two characteristic goals for City

Let’s be frank; this wasn’t a great showing from Tottenham Hotspur and realistically, the game should be classed as a point gained for them and a point dropped for Manchester City.

The statistics alone tell most of the story: City had 30 shots to Tottenham’s 3, including 10 on target, they had 52 touches in their opponent’s box compared to Tottenham’s 5, and had 13 corners to Tottenham’s 2. Basically, if City had finished more clinically, this could’ve been a massacre.

But why was this, particularly when the possession stats – 56% to City, 44% to Spurs – were so close? Unfortunately for the rest of the Premier League, Pep Guardiola has turned his very expensive squad into a well oiled, almost robotic machine that repeats the same moves and strategies almost to perfection.

They pass from the back while barely losing possession, foul the opposition to prevent the majority of potential quick breaks, and look to get to the by-line to send a low pass into an oncoming forward – over and over and over.

At their best – and City were at their best for the majority of this game – even a side as good as Spurs can barely touch them. The first half saw Kyle Walker-Peters and Moussa Sissoko constantly over-run on the right-hand side due to the movement of Raheem Sterling, while the second half was more of a midfield tale; Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan constantly exploited pockets of space behind Harry Winks, Tanguy Ndombele and Erik Lamela, meaning Tottenham were thoroughly pinned back into their own half.

Playing City right now is like facing a high-level video game boss – opponents have to take any chance they can get to snatch a goal, while also soaking up horrendous amounts of pressure. Judging by today’s game, if they don’t win the Premier League again it’ll be a surprise.