Sweet 16 for Manchester City as completed drubbing of Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
What started of as a cagey affair turned out to be a statement by Manchester City as they made light work of Tottenham Hotspur with goals from Rodrigo and a brace from Ilkay Gundogan.
City dominated possession in the first half but had only Rodrigo’s penalty goal to show for it. The penalty call was hotly disputed by VAR as the replays showed that Gundogan was brought down by Hojbjerg, who did have contact with the City man.
However, another angle showed that the primary contact was made by Gundogan on Hojbjerg, but it all came down to nothing as City were awarded the spot kick which was not convincingly put away by Rodri as Lloris went the right way but could not get too much on the ball to deny Rodri.
The only highlight for Spurs in the first half was Harry Kane’s freekick hitting the inside of the post at the 14th minute mark. Tottenham could not get into the game much post that.
Sissoko replaced Moura in the second half but it made no difference as some intricate, precise passing got Gundogan his first of two for the night as he squeezed in Sterling’s ball at the near post to double the lead.
Ederson’s pass for the clincher was the source of City joy as his kick was so well timed that it gave Gundogan space, time to take the ball in his stride and bring it onto the inside before lashing it home to make it 3-0. The pass had Guardiola up from his seat as he soaked in the mastery of his side.
Tottenham tried their level best to get something out of proceedings but were not successful as Spurs crashed to yet another defeat leaving them 8th on the points table with plenty to ponder.
Manchester City with their 16th victory in a row have gone 7 points adrift of Leicester City in 2nd place, having secured 53 points from 23 games. City have also conceded the least number of goals this season with 14.
Ilkay Gundogan backed up his Player of the Month award with a brace which gets his tally to 11 for the season.
The league leaders are in no mood to stop as they continue finding ways to weave their magic in the league. This was the 11th straight league win for Manchester City and they are indeed soaring.