Manchester City and Tottenham played out a pulsating draw that hurts City’s title chances and will have given an injury-hit Spurs a huge confidence boost. We are here with all the stats, facts and numbers you need to know from a fascinating affair at the Etihad Stadium
Manchester City and Tottenham have played out some barnstorming encounters in recent years, and this was up there with the best of the bunch. In the end, the sides couldn’t be separated, ending a six-goal thriller level, but the two sides will have contrasting feelings about the point they are taking home. While City lost further ground in the title race, Tottenham will be delighted to have ended their losing streak at the toughest of venues.
City came into this game having drawn their last two Premier League games, and having failed to win four of their last seven. It wasn’t exactly a crisis of form but given the standards they have set for the title race in recent seasons, it did mean a win was required here to keep up with early pace-setters Arsenal, who on Saturday had taken a four-point lead at the top of the table with their 2-1 win over Wolves.
So, when Son Heung-min beat Jérémy Doku in a race to Dejan Kulusevski’s through ball on the break and fired past Ederson with Tottenham’s first attack, there will have fans on the red side of north London cheering. The goal meant that Son had become the first player in Premier League history to score a goal away from home against four different reigning champions, having also scored against Leicester City, Chelsea and Liverpool when they had won the league in the previous campaign.
ButSpurs came into this match having lost three games in a row after taking the lead in each one. Clearly they aren’t the best side at protecting a lead, and fairly unsurprisingly,Son and Tottenham’s – and Arsenal’s – joy was very, very short-lived. Just two minutes and 16 seconds later, the Spurs captain turned a Julián Álvarez free-kick into his own net to level the scores. It was only the second time in the Premier League era that a player had scored a goal and an own goal inside the opening 10 minutes of a game.
City were buoyed, and the next 10 minutes set the tone of much of the match: it was all-action, non-stop, breathless and relentless attacking and pressing from the hosts, with Spurs picking at any scraps they could get and only ever truly threatening on the break.
It was no surprise, though, that Ange Postecoglou’s side played exactly as they always do and looked to pass their way out from the back. Unfortunately for them, with so many players missing and back-up full-backs Emerson Royal and Ben Davies deputising at centre-back, their natural game caused as many problems as it did solutions. Their pass completion rate in their own half of 90.1% was the second lowest they have managed in the first half of a match this season (behind the Chelsea defeat when they were down to 10 men after half an hour), while they committed two errors leading to opposition shots, having only made three such errors in the first half of matches prior to this game in 2023-24.
City were rampant, and on another day, they would have gone in at the break four or five goals up. Both Doku and Álvarez hit the woodwork, and the normally ruthless Haaland had four shots but somehow didn’t even manage to hit the target. City had 12 shots before the break – the second-most Spurs had conceded in the first half a of Premier League game this season – but they only went in 2-1 up. City would have been left even more disappointed, though, by the yellow card Rodri received, which means their key player – without whom they have already lost key games this season – will miss next week’s trip to Aston Villa.
Despite the relatively even scoreline, it was clear Postecoglou had to make a change, and he brought Pierre-Emile Højbjerg on for Bryan Gil. However, the second half started just as the first had ended, with Spurs gifting City a chance as goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario passed the ball straight to Bernardo Silva. Once again, though, City were unable to take advantage, with Silva’s goal-bound shot well saved by Vicario.
But City’s intensity dropped off, and Spurs grew into the game as a result. Compared to the frenetic first half, a decent chunk of the second period was rather less intense, and that seemed to suit the visitors.
In the first 55 minutes of the game, City had 15 shots, but they went 20 minutes from the 55th minute until the 75th without having a single attempt. In that time, Spurs took advantage. After Davies beat Haaland to a loose ball, Son laid it off to Giovani Lo Celso, who suddenly found himself in all sorts of space through the middle. He let rip and fired into the net from the edge of the box for the second successive game, having had to wait more than two years between Premier League goals before scoring against Aston Villa last week.
That goal woke City up, and normal service was soon resumed as the pendulum swung back the champions’ way. Tottenham were the makers of their own downfall once again as Yves Bissouma ran into trouble while trying to dribble his way out of defence. Rodri dispossessed him deep in Tottenham territory, and fed Haaland, who squared for substitute Jack Grealish to turn the ball into the net. City were in front again and would surely have been confident of seeing out the win.
But no, it wasn’t to be, and Spurs found a route back into the game.
This time, Brennan Johnson brought the ball forward down the left, breezed past Kyle Walker and stood a perfect cross up into the middle. Dejan Kulusevski had come in off the right flank and beat Nathan Aké to the ball to head in a dramatic equaliser. It was the Swede’s third goal against City – the most he has scored against any opponent since joining Spurs.
That was to be the last of the goals, though there to be more drama when the referee blew up prematurely for a foul in midfield, denying City an advantage that would have left Grealish in on goal with a potential chance to score a winner.
Spurs held out for a morale-boosting draw to end their run of consecutive defeats during the injury crisis they are currently enduring.
For City, this was a disappointing result – a third straight draw for the first time since April 2017 – which leaves them three points off Arsenal at the top of the table and, much like last season, playing catch up. The title race is well and truly on.
Manchester City vs Tottenham Stats Centre
Our live Opta match centre delivers you all the Manchester City vs Tottenham stats from Sunday’s Premier League game at the Etihad Stadium.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own analysis of the game.
Manchester City vs Tottenham Post-Match Facts
- There were just 137 seconds between Son Heung-min putting Tottenham 1-0 up and then scoring an own goal to level the scores. He is only the second player in Premier League history to score a goal and own goal in the opening 10 minutes of a game, after Gareth Barry for Aston Villa v Charlton in May 1999.
- Manchester City have failed to win three successive Premier League games despite leading in all of them (D3), the first time they have had such a spell since a run of three draws under Mark Hughes in November 2009.
- Tottenham have ended a run of three successive defeats in the Premier League with their first point since a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace in October 2023. Indeed, Tottenham have lost just one of their last five league games against the reigning champions (W3 D1).
- Dejan Kulusevski is just the second player in Premier League history to score in three consecutive seasons away to the reigning champions, doing so for Tottenham in 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24, after Danny Murphy (run of four between 2000-01 and 2003-04).
- Phil Foden registered his 60th Premier League goal involvement for Manchester City (39 goals, 21 assists), becoming the 10th different player to do so under Pep Guardiola (since 2016-17).
- Today was the first time in the big-five European leagues that Man City’s Erling Haaland has had as many as five shots in a game without one being on target.
- After scoring just once in his first 58 Premier League appearances for Tottenham, Giovani Lo Celso has scored in each of his last two games, with two of his three goals in the competition coming against Manchester City.
- Spurs’ Son Heung-min was just the fifth Premier League player to score (1), assist (1) and score an own goal (1) in the same Premier League game after Jacob Ramsey in November 2022, Gareth Bale in November 2012, Wayne Rooney in October 2012 and Kevin Davies in December 2008.
- Son Heung-min scored his 50th Premier League away goal for Tottenham, becoming just the seventh different player to score at least 50 home goals, 50 away goals and provide 50 assists for a side in the competition, and the first to do so for Spurs.
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