Embarrassing, chastening and pathetic. All words which could be levelled at the way Manchester City relinquished control of the match in the second half at White Hart Lane. Although there were several key players missing, and one or two short of top form, the first 35 minutes were close to the perfect away performance. Given that City had played relatively well, and Spurs were average at best up to that point, where did it all go wrong?
Without doubt the turning point was Eric Dier’s equaliser. A sweetly struck finish from distance, but the controversy started with the linesman failing to flag Kyle Walker offside in the build up. City’s failure to clear the ball regardless was sloppy, something that was a reoccurring theme throughout, but the call wasn’t even marginal. The linesman was feet away and well up with play. Missing it is simply inexcusable.
Whilst the officials deserve to be chastised for basic errors – this wasn’t the only one – the City players also need to start an inquest into what followed. They lost their cool. Any composure they had previously went completely out of the window. It is never a wise idea to concede right on half-time, but a side as experienced as Manchester City should have regrouped and put any perceived misdemeanors to one side. Perhaps understandably, the Blues strength in depth will be questioned after such a debacle, but injuries and team selection are not to blame for this defeat. This was all mental. The side that Pellegrini selected was good enough to win this game, as the first 35 minutes showed, but what happened after that was beyond his control.
This defeat should serve as a timely wake-up call for City. Decisions will go for and against you over the course of a season. We failed to show enough of the mental toughness that is needed to win the Premier League, which gets stronger and tougher each and every year. We didn’t react to the setback professionally.
It has been a challenging 10 days for City and the Borussia Mönchengladbach match on Wednesday is the perfect opportunity to show some of the vigour that was desperately lacking today. A reaction is needed to stop the mini-rot as quickly as possible. Of course there is a long way to go, with many twists and turns undoubtedly still to come, but there is no time like the present to set the record straight.
Finally, given the number of decisions that were missed today, resulting in three of the five goals in the game arguably standing incorrectly, it is surely time for football to get up to speed with the rest of the sporting world. Further use of technology is needed to prevent the repeated recurrence of the farcical situations that we see every week. Every live broadcast and highlights show has access to replays from numerous camera angles, why don’t the referee’s?
