Not much booing but plenty of plaudits for Tottenham, who did their deadly rivals Arsenal a huge favour by coming back from 2-0 down at half-time to hold Manchester City to a draw, with Dominic Solanke scoring twice in a thrilling second-half.
City looked set to reduce the gap at the top of the table to four points once Rayan Cherki and Antoine Semenyo had given them a comfortable 2-0 lead by half-time, with injury-hit Tottenham looking well off the pace, and in the old football saying, lucky to have nil.
Thomas Frank’s tenure has been hanging by a thread for some time, and it was not looking good for the Spurs manager at 5.15 as his team left for the half-time break to a smattering of booing.
But by the final whistle, there was a real buzz about the Tottenham Hotspur stadium and renewed belief that his side are not a lost cause, while for Pep Guardiola there was the sense of a huge opportunity missed.
Frank had been delivered bad news from the start, with Kevin Danso and Djed Spence joining Micky Van de Ven and eight others on the injured list. It meant the manager had to put seven teenagers on the subs’ bench, while City were closer to full strength.
Joao Palhinha shifted from midfield to a back three, and excelled as the game wore on. But Spurs were soon exposed by old failings, guilty of giving the ball away twice as City ran up a two-goal lead by half time.
Only ten minutes had passed when Yves Bissouma was robbed by Bernardo Silva, allowing Erling Haaland to tee up Rayan Cherki on the right. The France international is in a rich vein of form, and took one touch before drilling a low shot into the far corner of goal.
It looked a rout was on the cards, and it got worse for Spurs when Antoine Semenyou made it 2-0 shortly befpore half-time. Radu Dragusin, making his first start in over a year, gave the ball away with a poor clearance and it was worked to Silva, who flicked sideways for Semenyo to curl the ball past Vicario from 15 yards. Spurs had no response, and it was not until stoppage time that they managed a shot on target, with Xavi Simons’ free-kick comfortably saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma.
It looked to get worse for Spurs when their captain Cristian Romero failed to return for the second half, but a switch to four at the back gave them more attacking momentum and they took the game to City.
Solanke scored his first in the 53rd minute with a combination of skill and luck, taking down Simons’ pass superbly, but then somewhat fortunate to escape unpunished when he appeared to kick the back of Marc Guehi’s leg as the former Crystal Palace defender diverted the ball into the net.
The goal stood, after a VAR check for offside, and Tottenham’s tails were up. Those supporters who had booed off their team at half-time were roaring them on, and Donnarumma had to make two superb saves to tip over powerful drives from Destiny Udogie and the irrepressible Simons. But in between those saves, the big Italian keeper could not stop Solanke from equalising in the 70th minute with a scorpion kick, using the outside of his boot to flick a cross from Conor Gallagher that was marginally behind the England striker. Donnarumma got a touch as the ball sailed in an arc over his outstretched arm, and into the far corner of goal.
Pep Guardiola sent on Tijani Reijnders and Phil Foden in the latter stages, but Tottenham looked the more likely side to find a winner, and it took a superb intervention from Guehi to deny Solanke a hat-trick.
Even nine minutes of stoppage time could not yield a deciding goal, and the point was welcome for Spurs but frustrating for City, who are now six points behind Arsenal.
Vicario 6; Palhina 8, Romero 6 (Sarr 46), Dragusin 6; Gray 7, Bissouma 6 (Odobert 68), Gallagher 7; Kolo-Muani 4 (Tel 68), Solanke 8, Simons 9.
Donnarumma 8; Nunes 6, Khusanov 6, Guehi 7, Ait Nouri 6 (Gonzalez 69); Silva 7 (Foden 88), Rodri 6 (Marmoush 90+4) O’Reilly 7, Cherki 7 (Reijnders 69), Haaland 5, Semenyo 7.
Robert Jones 7/10
