Manchester City Fan View: City impress despite dropped points

Manchester City drew 2-2 with Tottenham Hotspur in the biggest Premier League game of the weekend. The Blues had lead 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium, before their top-four rivals pulled it back to a take a point back to London.

Dropped points have been very frustrating for City this season; Guardiola’s men can look back on a home draw with Everton where they missed two penalties, giving up a stoppage time equaliser to Middlesbrough as well as a couple of calamitous defeats on the road.

The dropped points this weekend feel a little different, though. Of course its frustrating to have surrendered a good lead, there’s no getting away from that, but there were elements of City’s performance that made this feel a bit more positive. Here are a few talking points.

Intensity

So many games at the Etihad Stadium this season have followed the same pattern. City establish dominance of the ball early on, as is a staple of Pep Guardiola’s style, and then proceed to play a slow possession game in which the opposition sit back and suffocate the Blues attacking players. This fixture was somewhat different. City did get hold of the ball and start controlling play early on, but this was far from slow in pace.

Through Raheem Sterling, Sergio Agüero, Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sané, City were able to probe more effectively than has become the norm. Throughout the first half, a goal for the home side seemed inevitable, yet somehow never came. Agüero had two chances that were well saved by Hugo Lloris and Silva forced a good stop with a shot from outside of the box.

What was most impressive, however, was the pressing game. Spurs could never settle; City won the ball from the Tottenham defenders with impressive regularity as the visitors were completely overwhelmed. Even a shift in defensive shape couldn’t stem the tide.

Given that Spurs are one of the best teams in the Premier League, one wonders how quickly a side of lesser quality might fold against this level of intensity. It will be interesting to see how well City can keep it up in the coming weeks.

Leroy Sané

The young German has had a slow start to life in Manchester. He’s been given time to come to terms with the game in England and been introduced to the team slowly. After a great performance against Arsenal that would have surely made him undroppable for the following week, he then picked up a minor injury that put paid to that idea.

Back in the starting line-up against Spurs, Sané was excellent. He looks at home in this team; his work rate is exemplary and his decision making looks increasingly assured. He has a keen idea of when to beat his man and when to look for a teammate, he presses well, he’s deceptively physical and he’s skillful enough to bamboozle defenders. It’s only early but he increasingly looks like he will become a vital cog in Pep’s machine. It’s hardly a coincidence that the Blues best performances of recent weeks – against Arsenal and Tottenham – have come with him in the starting line-up. His gradual introduction is looking like perfect man-management from Guardiola. Sané is a player to be very excited about.

Penalties

City should have had two penalties. It’s that simple. Both came in the second half with City 2-1 up and both involved Sterling. In the first, Danny Rose tangled himself around his England colleague and brought him down but the referee was not interested. If that incident was a case of bad luck in not getting the decision, the next one was ludicrous. Racing through on goal and staring down Lloris, Sterling got a huge push in the back from a desperate Kyle Walker. He stayed honest and tried to shoot but he was completely off balance. Had he gone down, he’d have certainly got the penalty. With Yaya Touré stepping up, the Blues could reasonably have expected to extend their lead to a probably-unassailable 3-1. Instead, seconds after the latter incident, Spurs had gone up the other end of the pitch and equalised.

One never likes to blame a referee when a team has 90 minutes to do the job, but the difference that decision made was stark and City can rightly feel a sense of injustice.

Gabriel Jesus

The £27m, 19 year old Brazilian has joined City with a phenomenal level of expectation on his young shoulders. He only came in the 82^nd minute of this game but, from the eight minutes he played, the early indications are very positive. He clearly was not phased by the occasion, keen to receive the ball and taking up excellent positions. He looked to have made the perfect start, putting the ball in the net with a close range finish just minutes after taking to the field, but he was correctly adjudged to be offside. Only time will tell if he can justify the immense hype, but as eight-minute debuts go, he could hardly have done more to impress.