The Blues took the lead midway through the first-half through Kevin De Bruyne but the game dramatically swung back in favour of the hosts as City suffered their third loss in four matches.
Injuries and some questionable offside decisions from the assistant referees didn’t help, but the Blues were their own worst enemy after the break with some poor defending contributing to a 4-1 loss.
Spurs have been something of a sure thing for the Blues in recent seasons with eight wins out of the nine meetings and a hatful of goals – mostly for Sergio Aguero – an average of 3.4 per game, in fact.
With a couple of 5-1 wins at White Hart Lane in the last five years as well, it’s a fixture City fans have grown rather fond of, though that stance will have surely changed after today
...Spurs v City...
Chasing a new club record of successive away league wins, the Blues came into this game of the back of an impressive 4-1 win at Sunderland – though there were still a number of familiar faces missing.
Joe Hart was left on the bench rather than risk aggravating a back injury and though Vincent Kompany was initially named as a sub, the skipper was withdrawn before kick-off with illness.
With David Silva, Eliaquim Mangala, Wilfried Bony and Gael Clichy still absent, there was a shuffling of personnel with Fernando joining Fernandinho as midfield enforcers and Yaya Toure taking on a more attacking role
...Spurs v City...
The early exchanges were just edged by the Blues, but as the half wore on, the hosts were reduced to only the occasional foray into the City half as the visitors gradually took control.
Raheem Sterling and Aguero had a couple of half-chances and Toure and De Bruyne had long-range efforts that went wide but it wasn’t until the 25th-minute that City finally broke through.
Fernando intercepted a ball on the edge of his own box and passed it to Toure who then set off on one of his trademark bursts forward. As the Ivorian approached the Spurs box, he laid it off to De Bruyne who buried a low drive from the right past Hug Lloris.
It had certainly been coming and Sterling almost doubled the lead two minutes later but his low drive towards the bottom left-hand corner was well saved by Lloris.
City looked comfortable, save from the odd defensive mishap, and the more likely to score the next goal as the half wore on and Sterling’s clever reverse pass again saw Lloris save his team as he beat out a fierce Aleksandar Kolarov shot on 43 minutes.
Instead, Spurs scored on the stroke of half-time with a goal that left the Blues fuming. Kyle Walker was played in on the right flank but looked a good yard offside as he whipped in a low cross that found Son but was brilliantly beaten out by Willy Caballero, but it was to be brief respite.
The ball fell to De Bruyne, but his attempted pass only found Eric Dier who hit a low shot from 25 yards past Caballero to draw the teams level.
And just four minutes after the break, Tottenham went ahead as Toby Alderweireld climbed to head home a free-kick from close range with Caballero stranded off his line. It was hard to believe that City were suddenly trailing, and there was worse to come.
Demichelis was penalised for a foul on the edge of his own box Christian Eriksen hit the resulting free-kick against the crossbar and Harry Kane was first to the rebound to end his much publicised goal drought. TV Replays showed Kane had been a fraction offside as the decisions continued to go against Pellegrini’s side.
That said, Spurs were by now in complete control and no doubt enjoying their turn of fortune against their jinx side
...Spurs v City...
In what was becoming a painful afternoon for the Premier League leaders, Erik Lamela added a fourth ten minutes from time as City were caught on the hop. The last time the Blues took a beating like this, it was at the hands of Middlesbrough in 2008 by a scoreline of 8-1.
All in all, a game to forget, not only for the Blues who perhaps had one too many big names missing in the end, but for the officials as well who had a bad day at the office.
