TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 4, MANCHESTER CITY 1
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Joe Hart, Vincent Kompany, and Yaya Toure added to lengthy City injury list
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Offside decisions go against City but Pellegrini admits his team didn’t take their chances
Manuel Pellegrini faces another injury headache ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Germany to face Borussia Monchengladbach in the Champions League.
Three defeats in their last four games after a five match winning run to start the season is hardly the best preparation for a must-win game in Europe and today’s damaging 4-1 reverse at Spurs, City’s second league defeat on the spin and worst league result for four and a half years, heaped more pressure on Pellegrini’s resources.
The Chilean had already admitted that he had fielded all eleven available fit senior players in his squad in City’s 4-1 Capital One Cup win at Sunderland, resting only Fernandinho, but despite making positive noises about the squad injury situation the teamsheet for the lunchtime game at White Hart Lane raised eyebrows.
Manuel Pellegrini had opted to make only one change from the Sunderland game, with Jesus Navas stood down and Fernandinho taking his place.
Joe Hart was not risked due to a minor back injury he was carrying but his stand-in Willy Cabellero didn’t cover himself with glory, bearing some responsibility for at least three of Spurs’ goals.
Vincent Kompany was named on the bench but pulled out of the squad altogether after complaining of feeling unwell after aggravating a calf injury despite being hailed as influential and available after injury yesterday by Pellegrini who said: “Kompany is important for the team, he has just recovered from his injury.
“He’s the captain and started the season very well, not only as a defender but he scored some very important goals also.”
And Yaya Toure seemed to pull his hamstring while making one of his trademark barnstorming runs which led to Kevin De Bruyne’s 25th minute goal which put City into the lead in the first half, the Belgian’s third goal in three starts this season.
Toure went off early in the second half and adding the big Ivorian midfielder to City’s injury list would be a big blow to Pellegrini.
There might have been question marks over the validity of the Belgian’s goal with a suspicion of offside about it but Pellegrini pointed out two of Spurs’ goals were clearly offside although he wasn’t placing the blame on City’s defeat purely on incorrect refereeing decisions by Mark Clattenburg and his team.
He said: “I know that two of the goals were perhaps offside, but I think that we played really well in the first half.
“We scored a goal and we had two or three clear chances to score again but didn’t take them.
I think Tottenham’s first shot at our goal was after 40 minutes. After that they scored with an offside goal and in the second half I think Tottenham played very well.”
With Sergio Aguero remaining out of sorts despite Pellegrini claiming he was “100% fit” yesterday, the Chilean added: “We are disappointed to lose two league games in a row. I think that we didn’t play very well against West Ham in the first half and we didn’t play well here in the second half.
“We must continue working and playing like we did in the opening 45 minutes.”
After going ahead in the first half, but missing chances to extend their lead – notably Raheem Sterling’s shot which was saved by Hugo Lloris, City were pulled back to 1-1 just before the break after Eric Dier’s 25 yard shot went past a static Caballero although Kyle Walker was clearly offside in the build-up.
Toby Alderweireld’s header from Erik Lamela’s free kick put the home side in front with Caballero flapping in no-man’s land and Harry Kane, who appeared offside, pounced on Christian Ericsen’s free kick after it came back off the woodwork to extend Spurs’ lead.
Heung-Min Son diverted Nacer Chadlis’ goal bound header into the net from an offside position which would have made it 4-1 before Lamela finished off City late on after rounding Caballero.
Wednesday’s opponents, Borussia Monchengladbach won their away game at Stuttgart 3-1 today – their second win in a row after a poor start to the season in which they lost their first five league matches.
Their German hosts have effectively experienced a mirror of City’s league start to the season although they also lost their opening Champions League tie 3-0 away to Sevilla earlier this month.