Man City fans made unforgivable Pep Guardiola error during Tottenham comeback

19 January 2023 , 22:09

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You are reading this correctly, they jeered Pep Guardiola. Home fans, that is. Home fans booed the genius, that’s right. Or they, at least, booed Pep’s team, which is just as unforgivable.

Only a few but enough to make themselves heard at the end of a first half which had been wrapped up with two Tottenham Hotspur goals. Dejan Kuluveski scored, Emerson Royal scored and some locals showed their displeasure.

They should have known better. They should have known Pep. They certainly should have been shamefaced very soon after. Three goals in little more than ten second half minutes - and a late beauty - means Manchester City’s title challenge is still alive.

But don’t be too harsh on the half-time cat-callers because they had a semblance of a point. To watch City struggle to fashion chances with any sort of regularity, as they did in the first half, is little short of bizarre.

For lengthy stretches of the last three matches, they have tried various systems with varying personnel but have operated mainly in the same area - in front of a packed defence. And there is no camouflaging the fact that Haaland’s slightly lumbering presence can be part of the problem - when he is not scoring, of course.

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He is a phenomenal threat, that goes without saying, but City scored plenty of goals without him. If they are, essentially, playing with ten men when Haaland is not scoring, they will have issues.

And so it proved as Spurs stole that two-goal lead just before half-time. In truth, it was half-stolen, half-gifted by some comic defending, championed by the over-confident Ederson, whose pass to Rodri begged for trouble.

Man City fans booed off Pep Guardiola's side at half time vs Spurs (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

Under pressure from Rodrigo Bentacur, the City midfielder could only provide an assist for Kulusevski. Ederson was again culpable when he could only push a Harry Kane shot on to the head of Emerson Royal, who nodded home the gift.

In the Brazilian keeper’s defence - or lack of it - John Stones and Rodri had both meekly passed up chances to nip the scoring move in the bud.

It was, for 45 minutes, that sort of performance from the entire City team and, to be frank, from Guardiola himself. His tactical tweaks and team selection had simply not worked out and those rare home dissenters let him know.

Yet Guardiola is nothing if not stubborn. He sent out the same eleven and they were level within eight minutes of the restart, Julian Alvarez setting the ball rolling with a poacher’s finish after Hugo Lloris had rashly tried - and failed - to make a decisive intervention in a scramble.

Riyad Mahrez celebrates with his Manchester City teammates after scoring against Tottenham (Getty Images)

If Lloris flapped, so did his colleagues and the equaliser was softly conceded, Riyad Mahrez cushioning a clipped pass on to the converting head of Haaland. THAT is why he is in the team.

But it was the assist-provider who was making the difference and it is Mahrez who is in a rich vein of form, making fools of Ivan Perisic, Ben Davies AND Lloris to give City an unlikely lead with a near-post finish. And it was fitting that Mahrez rounded off matters with another super-cool finish that typified his outstanding performance.

Pep turned to the stands and punched the air - or maybe his jabs were aimed at those who had jeered him and/or his team.

They really should have known better.