More to follow from the Etihad, but let’s leave it here with Jamie Jackson’s report.
Pep Guardiola spoke about that late decision: “Next question. I will not do a Mikel Arteta comment. It is hard when you review the image, the referee decides to blow the whistle after he has already said to play on. After the pass, the whistle, so I do not understand this action.
“It was a good game, that is the most important thing. It was a pity, same as the Liverpool game, I had the feeling that today that we made an incredible performance in all departments, against a really good team and manager and how they play. We created a lot of chances, we were aggressive, incredibly concentrated, and the feeling is that we still want to be there [at the top of the table]. It is a pity. Sometimes football is like life, you do not get what you deserve.”
Matt Dale writes in: “Like most people I have been scratching my head to understand the play on/non play decision near the end of play.
“I’m currently in Dubai and watching BeIn Sports. They broadcast a post-match interview with Guardiola, where he was fairly phlegmatic, but did mention that the ref may have already whistled (before signalling play on).
“This point has not been picked up on the Keys/Gray coverage but, having seen many replays of the coverage, it does look like the ref had the whistle in his mouth before signalling play on. It does not stop this being an error by the referee but may explain why he felt he had to bring play back. If he blew the whistle before signalling play on, the game has to stop.”
Ange Postecoglou spoke to Sky Sports: “There would probably only be a few words I can say. Joking aside it was more trying to get the players to believe in themselves rather than anger at them. I’m always mindful that from where I am on the touchline it seems simple but out there against an unbelievable team it is difficult.
“It was a case of whatever happens I will take responsibility, particularly if it doesn’t go well. But just go out there and believe in yourselves.
Jamie Jackson was our man at the Etihad. Here’s his match report.
Dejan Kulusevski and Son Heung-min speak to Sky Sports.
DK: “We would like to have won, it was an unbelievable second half.”
SHM: “It’s why we love football. We kept believing until the 90 minutes. Sometimes it happens (on scoring at both ends). I try to do the best thing for the team. Good feeling to score against Manchester City.”
DK: ”Second half was unbelievable. Too bad we conceded. If we played like we would have won the game.”
SHM: “The lads haven’t given up to the last minute. Unbelievable cross from Brennan. Dejan doesn’t often score a header. This was a huge point for the players’ confidence.”
Well done to whoever won this one….
Man City (3.09) 3-3 (0.56) Tottenham
— The xG Philosophy (@xGPhilosophy) December 3, 2023
While we wait for reaction from the Etihad, here’s some other reax.
After a big day of action, here’s the latest standings in Our League.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 14 | 18 | 33 |
| 2 | Liverpool | 14 | 18 | 31 |
| 3 | Man City | 14 | 20 | 30 |
| 4 | Aston Villa | 14 | 13 | 29 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 14 | 8 | 27 |
| 6 | Newcastle | 14 | 18 | 26 |
| 7 | Man Utd | 14 | -1 | 24 |
| 8 | Brighton | 14 | 4 | 22 |
| 9 | West Ham | 14 | 0 | 21 |
| 10 | Chelsea | 14 | 3 | 19 |
| 11 | Brentford | 14 | 3 | 19 |
| 12 | Crystal Palace | 14 | -5 | 16 |
| 13 | Wolverhampton | 14 | -6 | 15 |
| 14 | Fulham | 14 | -10 | 15 |
| 15 | Nottm Forest | 14 | -6 | 13 |
| 16 | AFC Bournemouth | 14 | -14 | 13 |
| 17 | Luton | 14 | -13 | 9 |
| 18 | Everton | 14 | -5 | 7 |
| 19 | Burnley | 14 | -17 | 7 |
| 20 | Sheff Utd | 14 | -28 | 5 |
Full-time: Manchester City 3-3 Tottenham
Boos ring out, but Pep and Ange embrace, share a point of mutual admiration. Haaland is up in the grill of the referee and is ushered away. Guardiola instead goes over to shake hands. Three draws in a row for City and a decent result for Tottenham, who were so lacking in personnel but stuck to their manager’s principles. What a game.
90+7: The corner is cleared, Walker plays it back in, and then Ake and Haaland can’t get to it. City want a penalty for Akanji and Skipp’s clash. They won’t get it. VAR wave it away. Correctly. The ref, since you ask, is Simon Hooper. And he’s booed as it finishes.
90+6 min: Spurs send on Jamie Donley for Brennan Johnson. City fans are boiling with bile, and there’s a corner.
90+4 min: Kulusevski down the wing, the ball played in for Johnson, cleared. City are away, surely they must score. Haaland is fouled and there’s no advantage played. Grealish was through, and City’s fans go spare. So does Guardiola. The sarcasm is out in force from Pep.
Updated
90+3 min: Kulusevski is booked for fouling Grealish, and a decent free-kick is beyond everyone. Spurs seem to be trying to waste time. Viacario get a goal kick launched for the first time all match.
90 min: Ruben Dias wailed in anguish there. He knew what a mess City had made. It’s not just Tottenham who can commit silliness. Four minutes added on. Next goal wins.
Goal! Manchester City 3-3 Tottenham (Kulusevski, 90)
City then give the ball away. Johnson chips in and Kulusevski takes one of those interesting positions, climbs all over Ake and scores.
Updated
89 min: Rodri is now in calm mode, shielding and protecting. He’ll be missed at Villa Park.
87 min: City subs: Alvarez and Gvardiol off, Ake and Kovacic on. Defensive-minded.
Spurs subs: Richarlison on for Bissouma. Attack-minded.
86 min: Spurs resume the cudgels of trying to attack. Kulusevski, who has been in a series of decent positions, just fails to send away Porro.
84 min: Gvardiol clatters Skipp, and Porro has chance to whip the ball in. It’s a good bal but everyone misses it, including Ederson.
83 min: Bissouma would have needed to be Maradona to weave through there. He’s good but not that good. And Spurs’ mistakes hand City a lead their play hadn’t suggested they could find.
Goal! Manchester City 3-2 Tottenham (Grealish, 81)
Bissouma gets in a mess, and the ball comes to Haaland, who lays up Grealish to score. Grealish slides to the camera to celebrate. That was poor from Spurs, what was Bissouma expecting to do?
Updated
80 min: Feels like it will be a long 10 minutes plus change for Spurs. City are loosening the throttle, though are still bitty. Bernardo goes on a run but only a blind alley.
78 min: The corner comes to Gvardiol, who finishes like a defender, clanking it into the air.
Spurs sub: Skipp in for Lo Celso.
77 min: Oliver Skipp is imminent, to add some ballast to the Spurs midfield. City are stepping it up at last, and force a corner.
76 min: Rodri, City’s driving force with KDB around, plays a 1-2 with Lewis and can only scrape wide. That’s the first attempt for fully 20 minutes.
74 min: Pep Guardiola is pacing, fidgeting with his snood. Memories of Yokohama Marinos? Porro meanwhile is booked for clattering into Grealish.
73 min: Haaland goes up and flying and leaves one on Emerson Royal. He looked a little out of control there but not enough for further censure.
City sub: Rico Lewis on for Foden.
72 min: Porro’s corners can cause problems. Hojberg thwacks the second ball goalwards and Johnson almost gets on the end of it.
71 min: Lo Celso almost gets another…was that a handball from Grealish? No. Corner instead.
70 min: City’s fans are moaning but Haaland is trying to gee them up. But Tottenham want more. And Tottenham get a corner.
Goal! Manchester City 2-2 Tottenham (Lo Celso, 69)
The passenger arrives. Ben Davies forces the ball out and Lo Celso runs on and beats Ederson. Tottenham are alive and well. City had fallen asleep.
Updated
68 min: City are doing the opposite of styling this one out, and Tottenham have a corner. Lo Celso whacks it in and Ederson has no problem in claiming.
66 min: And closure on Trevor Chappell, too, from Steve Hudson: “Jeremy Boyce is wrong to say underarm bowling is allowed under the Laws of cricket. It isn’t any longer - they banned it after the Trevor Chappell incident to stop it happening again.”
65 min: Ron Stack gets in touch: “I’ll take the entertaining losses, thanks, over the nail biting wins and lucky draws of the post-Poch era. A junior varsity squad can’t do much against a team like City, and I’m with Myles Harwood that “losing slower” isn’t an answer.”
And Ange-ball seems to be doing fine here. Having attended a few Conte games – including the explosions v Sporting and Saints then I’d agree with Ron.
64 min: Nathan Fisher closes the kit debate: “Contents of long-distance train toilet that’s been blocked with tissue since the day before. Reminds me of travelling across China.”
63 min: A Spurs attack…Udogie through…no, offside. The City fans boo for some reason. Presumably the lateness of the flag.
62 min: Oh Jack, you wally. Grealish kicks the ball away and is booked, and collects a suspension. That’s him and Rodri out at Villa. Unai Emery, it’s over to you.
61 min: Mark Sutton gets in touch: “A couple of points. The first is that Spurs strip colour is exactly that of a child’s plasticine after 5 years of it all being mixed together. Second, is Son’s goal at both ends the first time this has happened in a City-Spurs match since Tommy Hutchinson in 1981?”
Updated
59 min: Spurs are giving it a go. Have City slackened off? They did so last week and this season has not seen them embracing the perfection of previous years. Not just yet, anyway.
56 min: It’s actually rather quiet out there, the second half not quite given the gas of the opening moments. Though there is a ruckus between Akanji and Lo Celso, the latter who has been something of a midfield passenger.
54 min: Grealish flashes in the ball but Haaland isn’t quite set right to get there.
53 min: Grealish begins with an act of pressing, chasing down Emerson Royal, clearly eager to show his boss what he is prepared to do. Villa is the next game, and he’s got a good chance of making that one. Though he’s a booking away from a suspension.
52 min: Jack Grealish is on, as Doku seems to have hurt himself. Pep Guardiola ushers his winger from the field and there’s a look of concern.
50 min: Hojberg is penalised for a foul on Haaland that was rather short of an act of Scandi brotherhood.
Updated
49 min: Ange-ball is quite a debate, isn’t it? Perhaps even more of a debate than Trevor Chappell, just 42 years on.
47 min: Hojberg for Gil was a half-tme sub, by the way.
Meanwhile: David Wall gets in touch: “Re: Sean Orlowicz (44mins), how did Celtic get on in Europe when Postecoglu was there? That might be an indication of how Spurs will do over the longer-term in the Premier League playing this way. It’s one thing to do it when your players are far superior to the opposition but another when the other teams have good players too, as well as huge teams of analysts working out the weak points in your strategy. I’m sure it’ll be an entertaining watch but i wonder if supporters will feel so positively about that if they don’t win much again until Maddison and Van de Ven return in January. As for Spurs’ kit, i was thinking dirty snow that has started to melt to slush at the side of the road.”
Myles Harwood: “I’m not sure what folks like Sean Orlowicz are really expecting Ange to do. He is playing every senior defensive player available to him apart from Hojbjerg who was largely terrible against Wolves and Aston Villa. They could play deeper but he doesn’t have the players to defend the box. Spurs had a light squad going into the season and it’s been brutally exposed but playing to lose slower isn’t the answer.”
46 min: We are back underway and almost immediately, Vicario plays himself into trouble, the ball goes to Haaland, and then is smashed by Silva and saved.
The Chappell debate continues. Jeremy Boyce: “Re Ian Rubinstein’s comment : actually underarm bowling is allowed in the rules of cricket, like underarm serving in tennis. Is he trying to suggest by some kind of reverse-symbology that there may have possibly been underhand dealings in the recent pasts of either of those pillars of financial correctness Man C or Tottenham ?”
Leon Wylie with an important correction: “The cause of our everlasting shame was Greg, not Ian, Chappell. I still cringe and still apologise to any person from NZ I meet.”
And not Trevor, either.
Sunday's action so far
Half-time: Manchester City 2-1 Tottenham
Ange’s team have done what he promised, City have done what we all feared and to be just 2-1 down must count as relief for Tottenham. Is there a way back? Maybe, but Tottehham play one way, and that’s not working.
45+1 min: Spurs are holding on like they are protecting an away goal in the old-style Champions League. When actually, they are trying to keep the score down at half-time.
45 min: Three minutes have been added on. It’s been a fast-moving game, both going at the other, though one of the teams has so many more weapons to play with.
44 min: Sean Orlowicz gets in touch: “Sure Spurs are fun to watch again. But this is complete suicide ball and it looks like Ange will set the record for most consecutive losses from a winning position. And with your most important player on the wrong side of 30, this “project” doesn’t have too big of a window to come good. I wonder how long before Ange is viewed by Spurs fans the same way Arsenal fans viewed late period Wenger - an idealist whose tactics simply wont work at the highest level of the game.”
43 min: Ian Rubenstein writes (in white, rather unhandily): “I would argue the Spurs kit is based on the New Zealand ODI uniforms of the Brian McKechnie era. As long as Trevor Chappell isn’t involved in the Man City brains trust.”
Think it was Ian Chappell to blame. His brother was acting on orders.
Updated
42 min: Another Tottenham break, and it’s Kyle Walker who clears the danger, using his speed to get in the way of a ball that was aimed for Son.
Updated
41 min: Postecoglou’s face is impassive. His team are under the pump. The problem he has is that City are just as good as his at what Tottenham are best at. That’s evidenced by Gil failing to send away Son.
Updated
39 min: A Tottenham attack, though one that, once Porro’s shot is blocked, results in a City counter. We are told there’s been 10 shots to one.
38 min: Udogie, ever impetuous, is the latest booking, having smashed into Foden.
36 min: Alvarez, who has been outstanding, hits the post, and then sets up Haaland, who is so far finishing in the style of Nottingham Forest-issue Robert Rosario. (Bob was good elsewhere, it should be noted.)
35 min: Rodri is booked, and that’s a big deal. He’s collected his fifth booking for his foul on Porro and will miss Villa in midweek. City without Rodri…and at Villa Park. Well.
33 min: It doesn’t seem long since questions were raised against Foden’s future. Forget that, he’s a player of such class his moment was always going to come. That’s his seventh goal of the season.
Goal! Manchester City 2-1 Tottenham (Foden, 32)
This time they go through the middle, and Davies is tempted away from his station. The ball is played into Alvarez who turns, and with radar-like awareness, plays in Foden, who has little to do but control and slot.
Updated
31 min: Jeremy Boyce on that Spurs kit: “Re the Tottenham away strip, not so much blackberry yoghurt, I’d be more inclined towards the sewage surfers like to avoid. Whereas City are in Tahiti lagoon blue. Make of that what you will.”
30 min: Doku escapes, and he’s up against a struggling Davies. His shot is a screamer but off the post.
28 min: Corner cleaned up by a grateful Silva as City turn and go again. Quite rowdy there today, the Christmas markets and mulled booze perhaps lifting the voices of the locals.
27 min: City calm it down, attempting to tempt Tottenham out. It may not take long. Though in fact, Silva loses the ball and Gil escapes, only for Rodri to come back to sweep up. Another Spurs corner.
25 min: Doku takes pressing to its nth degree by chasing Porro down to his touchline. Spurs meanwhile refuse to get the ball launched from the danger area.
23 min: Where Tottenham can hurt City is their speed, and Brennan Johnson is their quickest. He flies down the flank and Ruben Dias has to deflect behind, and at risk of putting through his own net/
22 min: Foden tries to find Haaland with one of his crossfield specials. Just overhit. The Hollywood ball they used to call those.
21 min: Tottenham’s possession results in a corner, one that Porro swings in and the City defence deals with comfortably.
20 min: Some actual Tottenham possession.
Their kit is not receiving rave reviews:
Carlos: “Spurs turn up in a kit that can only be described as blackberry yogurt. Long may it be resigned to the back of the fridge after this. On par with Liverpool‘s, dreaded grey away kit of yore.”
Colum: “I know you have football to describe, but could you add a word or two on the Spurs kit? Yeugh was the word came to my mind.”
I’m rather colour blind but they look a shade of puce to me.
Updated
18 min: It’s been breathless as ever, hard work for those of a Tottenham persuasion. City are pulling all the levers they can, and Spurs already have the look of desperate men.
16 min: To describe Tottenham’s defending as haphazard would be understating it. A lot of flailing and hacking. City win another corner by that route. Eventually, from the second or third ball, Silva pulls in Spurs players and sets up Haaland for a shot. That goes behind for another corner.
14 min: Haaland does miss a few, he just happens to score a truckload, too.
13 min: Chaos in the Spurs box, the ball bouncing off Porro and Vicario struggling to judge the flight of the ball. Then Spurs give it away, and Haaland has an open goal, and somehow he misses. He is human after all!
Updated
12 min: It has been pointed out that Manchester City’s ads boards seem especially large today. Is that allowed? Almost certainly so, it’s just a little invasive. Still, all the record sponsorships don’t sell themselves.
Updated
10 min: This is the story of the Tottenham, a very silly game already. And thank God for that.
Goal! Manchester City 1-1 Tottenham (Son OG, 9)
Oh! That’s the other side of Ange-ball. A free-kick is whipped in, Haaland gets a breath on it, and Son’s lap does the rest.
Updated
7 min: That was so so good from Tottenham. Wow, guys. Well, that’s the beauty of watching Postecoglou’s teams. They are always a threat, even if the counter isn’t their usual mode of goals. Son, though, showed all his experience…
Goal! Manchester City 0-1 Tottenham (Son, 6)
Their first attack! Ange-ball at its finest. Kulusevski is set away by Gil, and Doku is no defender, and Son slots past Ederson.
Updated
5 min: Vicario is forced to clear hurriedly as the City press forces Tottenham into back passes, and then comes a save from Doku. City look to want to get the job done early here.
2 min: An early corner, and Vicario gets something on it as Akanje threatens. City have a team of real size, while Tottenham have no centre-backs.
Here we go, here we go, this is it.
1 min: Off we go at the Etihad, and City soon set off at their rhythm.
Pep Guardiola’s programme notes included a “wow”: “We know Ange Postecoglou well from his time with our friends in Yokohama - the team he built there was exceptional. We played them in 2019 and wow...what a game that was. I had no doubts after that night in Japan he was a top manager. It will be a pleasure to see him again.”
Afternoon match reports
Ange reveals that the lack of Eric Dier, an actual centre-back is due to “Eric pulling up after training hurt”.
Ange gives it some Ange in his chat with Sky Sports: “We’re just going to try and play our football but you’ve always got to remember there’s an opponent there that’s going to try and stop you and a very, very good opponent today so we’re going to have to make adjustments during the game but what won’t change is the way we play our football.”
Full-time Premier League scores
West Ham 1-1 Crystal Palace
Bournemouth 2-2 Aston Villa
Chelsea 3-2 Brighton
Liverpool 4-3
There was an awful lot of time added on everywhere but West Ham, which was the game broadcast in the UK. Not the greatest scheduling you’ll see.
No centre-backs again for Ange, with Ben Davies and Emerson Royal the pair, and an adventurous midfield in Lo Celso and Bissouma. Bryan Gil is in the attacking trio, too. He’s going for it, as promised.
As for Manchester City, three changes from their latest meeting with RB Leipzig. Ederson, Jeremy Doku and Julian Alvarez replace Stefan Ortega, Rico Lewis and Jack Grealish. That’s a very strong team, in which in terms of the game last week with Liverpool, the one you probably forgot already, Nathan Ake out and Josko Gvardiol is the only alteration. Still, City weren’t great in that game so maybe there is hope for Spurs.
Updated
The teams
Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Gvardiol, Dias, Akanji, Rodri, Silva, Foden, Doku, Alvarez, Haaland. Subs: Ortega, Phillips, Stones, Ake, Kovacic, Grealish, Gomez, Bobb, Lewis.
Tottenham: Vicario, Udogie, Porro, Royal, Davies, Bissouma, Lo Celso, Johnson, Kulusevski, Gil, Son. Subs: Forster, Austin, Skipp, Hojbjerg, Richarlison, Veliz, Santiago, Donley, Dorrington.
Ange’s latest “look, mate”. By David Hytner.
I think there’s a reason I’m sitting here and the reason is the end game is not to beat City. I’m not trying to set up a team to beat City, I’m trying to set up a team to be successful. If that was enough [beating City], I wouldn’t be sitting here. It would be somebody else.
It’s a legitimate question: ‘Why wouldn’t you do it if you know it’s going to be successful?’ But I’d be surprised if people would expect me to go down that route, knowing who I am as a manager.
When Pep first said “wow, guys” about Ange. By Jonathan Liew.
“So demanding,” wheezed Guardiola. “An incredible dynamic.” Raheem Sterling went further, praising Yokohama as “probably one of the best teams I’ve seen playing out from the back”.
Early team news tells a story
Manchester City
Doubtful None
Injured Nunes (fitness, unknown), De Bruyne (hamstring, Jan)
Suspended None
Tottenham
Doubtful None
Injured Richarlison (groin 10 Dec), Sarr (hamstring, 15 Dec), Sessegnon (hamstring, 15 Dec), Solomon (knee, Jan), Van de Ven (hamstring, Jan), Maddison (foot, Jan), Phillips (ankle, Jan), Bentancur (ankle, Feb), Perisic (knee, Jun)
Suspended Romero (third of three)
Preamble
All the dreams he held so close, seemed to all go up in smoke, where will he lead them from here? Ange Postecoglou, the darling of early season, has had a rough trot of late. The injuries are piling up, and now he faces the toughest test of all in the English game, a Manchester City team from which only Kevin De Bruyne is missing. Not only that, but Pep Guardiola has been praising Tottenham’s style of football in a manner that suggests he sees Spurs playing the right way: as in an open style in which his war machine will then crush and walk all over. Still, Ange ain’t changing his ways for nobody so that means he will go hell for leather at the Etihad. It’s a crazy plan and it’s probably not going to work but we don’t know that, so that’s why we’re here.
The kick-off is at 4.30pm UK time. Join me.
