Man City Close In On EPL Title With Win Over Spurs

Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino remained upbeat about his side’s prospects this season, despite their 3-1 home defeat against Manchester City on Saturday evening.

Speaking ahead of Saturday’s match, Pochettino insisted that it was still unfair to directly compare the two clubs and admitted that Spurs will not earn the same respect as City until they start to win trophies. Burnley is seventh, two points behind Arsenal, which plays Sunday at Newcastle.

Manchester City: Ederson 6, Walker 7, Kompany 6, Laporte 6, Delph 6, Gundogan 7, D Silva 7, De Bruyne 6, Sane 7, Sterling 8, Jesus 7.

Pep Guardiola’s side profited from first-half goals from Gabriel Jesus and Ilkay Gundogan, before Raheem Sterling netted in the second period to put the game to bed after Christian Eriksen had given Spurs a slight lifeline. Promotion was secured from the League Championship after Fulham drew with Brentford. Similarly, the second goal resulted from a swift counter-attack that eventually saw Hugo Lloris come way off his line and foul Sterling to concede a penalty (although contact happened outside the box), which was dispatched easily by Gundogan.

Within eight minutes of tightening up at the back, City broke forward and scored a third through Raheem Sterling, who had to move more central.

But despite the prospect of Spurs – unbeaten in the league since December – inflicting a fourth straight defeat, City bounced back with a performance of champions to deliver an emphatic reminder of their class and why they are, once again, 16 points clear at the top of the table.

Guardiola said: “They are human beings and they are disappointed because they gave it everything but we have to stand up”.

“The season we are doing is well, we are in the top four”. We need five points from six games. Though the eventual score was 3-1, City had at least three more good chances to widen the margin, and it was just their inability to find the finish that let them down at times.

All of Liverpool’s prolific front 3 were on target as Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino struck either side of Salah’s deft header to take their combined tally for the season to 82. Third-place Liverpool isn’t in position to take a game off, though, and Romelu Lukaku has been scoring at more than a goal-per-game pace over his last 10 appearances.

“We know that pressure comes with it, and that criticism comes with it, but we know what we have as a team and what we can do”.

For the third successive game, Lloris was at fault for at least one goal as Spurs lost to Manchester City. Losing to rivals Manchester United and being eliminated from the Champions League by fellow English team Liverpool meant Pep Guardiola’s side needed to turn things around quickly and did just that as they raced into an early two-goal lead before the 25th minute.

Chelsea kept their faint hopes of Champions League football next season alive by closing to within 7 points of Spurs with a stunning 8-minute fightback to deepen Southampton’s predicament in the bottom three.