‘Harry Kane team’ jibe to VAR agony – how Tottenham became Man City’s bogey side
Sorry to risk jinxing it, Tottenham fans, but your team has been something of a sharp thorn in Manchester City's Herculean side in recent years.
Considering that this season, at the time of writing, is the first time Spurs have felt like anything more than top four contenders since Pep Guardiola's men starting routinely mopping the floor with their domestic rivals five years ago, their record against the Citizens more than warrants a nodding pout of approval.
Since 2019 in all competitions, Tottenham have beaten City six times and lost just five, a record which betters that of Liverpool (four wins and six defeats), who are the only team to have kept a degree of pace with Pep's runaway trophy-hoovers, and which dwarves that of Manchester United (five wins, eight defeats) and Chelsea (four wins, 10 defeats). In short, Spurs have become City's bogey team, and here's how they've managed it:
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'The Harry Kane team'
Guardiola probably thought nothing of it when he labelled Tottenham 'the Harry Kane team' ahead of their Champions League quarter-final clash in 2019, but little did he know he'd lit a fire under Heung-min Son that would be tough to extinguish.
Spurred on by the (presumably inadvertent) suggestion that he was nothing more than icing on a Kane-shaped cake, Son turned on the style over the two legs, netting three of his side's four goals as Spurs miraculously advanced.
After netting the winner in first leg, Son lurched towards the pitch-side camera and yelled: "Do you know who I am?" No prizes for guessing who he was talking to.
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VARgh
Man City might have finally got their Champions League monkey off their back by winning the competition last season, but their dramatic defeat to Spurs in 2019 all but broke them. Mauricio Pochettino's men were big underdogs heading into the clash, but sealed a 4-4 aggregate victory after an injury time Raheem Sterling winner was controversially chalked off by VAR.
It was a result that not only established Tottenham's newfound European pedigree, but also one that earmarked City as perennial underachievers in the competition, having been knocked out by Monaco and Liverpool in the two years prior. Underdogs Lyon and Chelsea then knocked them out in 2020 and 2021, and some remarkable Tottenham-in-2019-esque drama cost them against Real Madrid in 2022.
It was clear the defeat to Spurs messed with City's minds in so far as they seemed to forget how good they were when it came to the business end of the Champions League, and indeed when it came to playing Tottenham.
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Enter Mourinho
When Jose Mourinho, Guardiola's eternal foe, rocked up at Tottenham in 2019, the City boss must have cursing his luck. Despite winning just two of the six games against his City team as Man United boss, Mourinho's ability not only to get under Guardiola's skin, but also to potentially outfox the tactically-savvy Spaniard was enough cause for concern, not least with him joining the side that had just dumped the Citizens out of Europe a few months prior.
Mourinho's Spurs won back-to-back games against City, and in typical late-career Mourinho fashion too, registering just 33% possession in both fixtures. The 'we have your number' can was kicked further down the road and City's mental block in Tottenham games was more evident than ever.
Pep's team won their third encounter, and Mourinho was controversially axed on the eve of what would have been the fourth, the 2021 Carabao Cup final. A Ryan Mason-led Spurs lost 1-0, leaving fans understandably peeved at the timing of Mourinho's dismissal.
Kane's evolution
Tottenham have not only been beating Man City on the mental battlefield, but also on the technical battlefield too. Kane's transformation into an all-encompassing creative forward was like Kryptonite against City's aggressive high-line and pressing style.
Around the turn of the decade, Kane started dropping deep and pulling the strings from midfield positions. His typically-stupendous technique, spatial awareness and frankly outrageous passing ability made him near-impossible to keep quiet, especially given the telepathic understanding he forged with Son.
The way the England skipper would drop deep with the ball, invite the City press, and play inch-perfect passes to on-rushing team-mates was a major reason why the Citizens struggled to contend with Spurs, and you can bet your bottom dollar they'll be relieved Kane is in Germany, rather than in the opposite dressing room, today.
Conte-nuing their form
Antonio Conte's spell at Tottenham was a bit of a mixed bag, but he could always rely on games against City to steady the ship. The Italian struggled to establish a true Conte brand of football in north London, like he so successfully at Chelsea, but everything seemed to click when City came to town.
Six months after predecessor Nuno Espirito Santo sealed the only significant win of his miserable Spurs tenure against the Citizens, Conte ended a run of three-successive league defeats by masterminding a 3-2 win at the Etihad.
His side nearly repeated the feat the following season, letting slip a 2-0 lead to lose 4-2, but made amends in the home fixture a few months later, despite the fact Conte was at home recovering from surgery at the time.
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