Jamie Carragher highlights the one factor Tottenham are missing

Pep Guardiola admitted he was frustrated that his Manchester City side failed to beat Tottenham Hotspur after being the better side in their 2-2 draw at the Etihad. They have won 65 per cent of their games with him in the team compared to just 46 per cent without him this season, and another spell on the sidelines would be particularly worrying with Jan Vertonghen already facing a spell out with an ankle problem.

Alderweireld produced an impressive display at the Etihad Stadium but was substituted in the 64th minute after picking up a knock.

The City boss again reiterated that Aguero will leave the club at a time of his own choosing. “There are a lot of big things ahead”.

“For me it wasn’t a penalty”, Pochettino said. “When he [Sterling] is pushed, I don’t understand”.

“He’s 19 years old, we need to wait”.

Even if City’s title charge has run aground, they are in the last 16 of the Champions League, where they face AS Monaco next month, and visit Crystal Palace in the FA Cup fourth round. It is too hard to measure if there is a gap or not.

“And here, we’re in a completely different world”.

Going two behind seemed to kick Mauricio Pochettino’s side into life, and they showed great character to get themselves back into the crucial clash.

Manchester City XI: Bravo, Zabaleta, Otamendi, Kolarov.

“He’s shown enough before in Barcelona or at Bayern Munich, but sometimes expectation, you have to manage that”.

However, not long after they emerged for the second 45 minutes, their captain quickly changed that with two very bad clangers that helped City into a 2-0 lead. “The squad is very young, I’m very young still”, Pochettino said.

“It is Pochettino’s third season there and they are playing how he wants”.

Tottenham managed to win six games in a row, but only two of the vanquished teams were truly hard ones.

Despite working with different materials, both managers share an idealised vision for how football should be played, a model of expansive football that they are trying to flawless. I am of course sad because the players do not deserve that but in the future this performance will make us stronger.

First up the Blues though, and I wonder if Arsene Wenger, who is a keen student of the game, has been thinking about trying Arsenal with the three at the back formation that has been adopted by our title rivals Chelsea and Tottenham.