PL Hangover: Blue Sunday for Man City as Tottenham Show Title Credentials

For 45 minutes, it was hard not to feel a smidgen of sympathy for the Premier League champions elect. Manchester City's players looked like zookeepers charged with keeping in check a herd of elephants in a mouse-infested shoebox.

With Tottenham demonstrating herculean qualities in pressing their visitors into a sorry submission on Sunday, the pitch at White Hart Lane had never looked so small. City were trampled, a carrier bag caught under the wheel of a car.

As statements of intent go, a 2-0 victory that ensures Spurs head into the international interlude as the only unbeaten side in the Premier League, just a point behind their visitors, was nigh on immaculate. While the best defence in the league kept a shutout against its joint-most prolific attack, it would be remiss to reduce the game into being a victory for suppression over expression.

Tottenham were better in defence, midfield and attack.

The sheer viciousness of Tottenham's intensity made it as viscerally thrilling a performance as there has been this season—maybe even last. If Celtic made City question themselves in the Champions League on Wednesday, Spurs had them make a group booking to see a psychiatrist. The league leaders stood about as much chance of escaping north London intact as a walnut trapped in a vice manned by an obese squirrel.

Mauricio Pochettino out-thought Pep Guardiola; his Tottenham players outfought Manchester City's. To say Spurs had it all their own way would be to omit a duel between Hugo Lloris and Sergio Aguero, but few would dispute the Frenchman deserved a first clean sheet against Manchester City, having put an end to the striker's run of 10 goals in nine previous appearances against the north Londoners.

Had Erik Lamela converted a second-half penalty he had to wrestle with Heung-Min Son (had Danny Rose not intervened, there's every chance tops would have been off) to take, Spurs would have won by an even healthier margin. Pochettino will have been happy with 2-0 given his predilection to work under the radar. Swell that scoreline, and his cover might have been blown.

October is no time to make grandiose statements, but on this evidence, Spurs have no intention of acquiescing to the idea last season was the best chance they will ever have of claiming the title. This has been Tottenham's best start to a campaign since 1960-61, the last time they were champions of England. They have conceded three goals in seven league matches.

In an age when Leicester City are the Premier League champions and Donald Trump has a chance of being elected President of the United States of America, it's hardly fallacious to suggest Spurs can win the league.

"We are at a different level to other clubs, but we work hard to improve, and if we play with passion, we have quality enough to fight with the big teams," said Pochettino post-match, per Matt Gatward of The Independent.

The old guard who are trying to reassert themselves will be met head-on, not with subservience. There will be no shuffling to the rear of the queue just because City, Manchester United and Chelsea want their place back at the top table. Dele Alli does not strike as being a young man programmed to curtsy when presented with perceived superiors. Neither do his Bash Street Kid pals.

Pochettino's plan was simple and executed to perfection. This was less heavy-metal football than simply heavy metal dropped on an opponent from a great height with the unapologetic intention to induce an early knockout. They got it.

Tottenham's front players were charged with disrupting City's possession play from the source, a goalkeeper and back four who have proved decent Barcelona doppelgangers when stood off and admired but decidedly less so when pressed.

While City's legs were no doubt heavy after their exertions against Celtic, and the absence of Kevin De Bruyne would be sorely felt by any club in world football, Tottenham had even bigger crosses to bear going into the game.

Without last season's top goalscorer, Harry Kane, and arguably the best tempo dictator in the league, Mousa Dembele, a near-4,000-mile round trip to Moscow was hardly the lead-in to a top-of-the-table clash Pochettino would have hoped for, either.

Guardiola made no attempt to hide behind his side's efforts in Scotland, per Gatward: "If you want to compete in all the tournaments, you have to be used to it. The schedule is the schedule. I can't control that. I don't think [the Celtic game was a factor]. Spurs were better. It is as simple as that."

Eight of those who started for Spurs against CSKA Moscow on Tuesday did so again on Sunday. That makes the intensity of Pochettino's side on Sunday all the more remarkable. It must have felt like being caught in a backdraft for City's players, as they were repeatedly forced back by the overwhelming physicality of their opponents.

The pressure put on Aleksandar Kolarov and Pablo Zabaleta in the full-back positions saw them put in shifts that will have delighted Gael Clichy and Bacary Sagna. Guardiola less so.

Nicolas Otamendi was similarly all at sea positionally. Spurs' interchangeable forward line was effectively the equivalent of showing three red rags to a bull as far as Otamendi was concerned. The Argentinian could have picked up a pocketful of bookings from a more pernickety referee than Andre Marriner.

For the first 25 minutes, City's players wore the type of spaced-out expressions usually found in Laurel and Hardy routines when one or the other has a grand piano fall on them. By this point, Spurs had taken the lead and mustered five attempts on goal. City had barely got close enough to see the whites of Lloris' woodwork.

No one loves a bit of inadvertent slapstick more than Kolarov, who would do well not to listen back to Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher's assassination assessment of his performance on Sky Sports. If his confidence is as brittle as his defending, he might not report back to Manchester after the international break.

Carragher labelled him a "poser" (via Arash Hekmat of the Daily Mirror), while one suspects Neville blames him for Tottenham's first goal, the penalty City conceded, the proliferation of nuclear weapons and Brangelina's split.

Just 23 seconds had elapsed when Son, operating as a false nine with Vincent Janssen dropped to the bench, produced Spurs' first effort of the game, shooting over from an angle only a player brimming with confidence would take on. That he also had the first shot of the second half after 31 seconds said much about how he set the tone throughout.

The goal Tottenham scored to take the lead on just nine minutes was, on first inspection, no beauty. However, it encapsulated what Pochettino's side is all about. Victor Wanyama was the architect, as his rangy presence snapped into David Silva near halfway to steal possession for Lamela, who fed Rose.

Unapologetic about getting the ball into the box when other top sides look to weave more measured patterns, Rose wrapped his foot around the ball to whip in a cross that begged to be dispatched. It was—by the hapless Kolarov.

City had been penned in before the pie queue had subsided, and it would be half-time before Guardiola was able to administer smelling salts. By that time, they were two down. Deservedly so.

There was nothing fortuitous about Tottenham's second. Nine minutes before the break, Son cut in from City's left and played the ball into Alli. He miscontrolled, and the danger looked to have passed, only for the ball to break back to the South Korean. With the best pass since Humphrey Bogart stole a kiss from Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca, Son dissected the space between Zabaleta and Kolarov with a perfect through ball. Alli needed no second invitation to do the rest, sweeping home first time past Claudio Bravo. 

It was the French philosopher Rene Descartes who proffered, "I press, therefore I am" and here, in all Spurs' muscular splendor, he saw his words given a physical manifestation. This was pressing from another dimension. Suddenly, it became obvious what double training sessions under Pochettino reap: a third lung.

Rare is it watching a football match can render a neutral exhausted from the confines of an armchair. A struggle to lift the kettle to make a brew confirmed it is possible, though. You would've half expected Wanyama to scythe you down before reaching the front room, sending china and biscuits skyward as Pochettino twitched wildly from the touchline, howling "press, press, press" at the moon.

For an hour as Spurs' attacking focal point, Son put in a near-perfect centre-forward's performance without ever quite being a proper centre-forward. Guardiola would have loved it.

His runs were cute, his link-up play was exemplary before it faded with a couple of overindulgent moments in the second half, his was passing inventive and his energy levels were so buoyant he resembled a children's TV presenter hooked up to an intravenous drip of pure Skittles. He also again showed a surprising accuracy and venom in his boots when striking for goal.

All over the field, Tottenham won personal battles. Rose stymied the renaissance of England team-mate Raheem Sterling by repeatedly forcing him back toward his own goal. Like Otamendi, both were the beneficiaries of some lenient refereeing. When everyone is enjoying themselves as much as they did on Sunday, clemency doesn't seem such a bad thing.

On the opposite flank, as an auxiliary winger, Kyle Walker made Kolarov look like a false footballer. Even Pep doesn't like those. Aside from John Stones, excellent in spells again on Sunday, City's back four looks at the very least a transfer window away from being anything like good enough to mount a serious tilt for the Champions League.

Spellbindingly good forward players might be enough to get them over the line in the Premier League, but this is a house built on sand.

"

1 - Pep Guardiola has lost his first league game away from home since December 2015. Defeated. pic.twitter.com/FCNgSmGQ3D

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 2, 2016"

What Guardiola would give for Tottenham's defence. Having Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen behind you is like baking a cake with Mary Berry in the background doing the dishes. It's easier to press high, just as it's easier be experimental with coconut butter, when you know someone else has got your back and will in all probability rectify any mistakes.

Rose and Walker have improved infinitely as a result of having the confidence to bomb forward, safe in the knowledge the back door will remain locked in their absence.

In a modern game in which strike partnerships are about as antiquated as penny-farthings, there's something gloriously reassuring about a centre-half duo in full working order. Aguero will create chances for himself against any side in the world, but it was the loneliest of furrows he ploughed on Sunday, as Alderweireld and Vertonghen never lost sight of one another. They made 24 clearances between them alone, per WhoScored.com.

When Aguero did get the odd sight of goal, Lloris was in typically reliable form, even if his save in the second half that saw the ball ricochet onto the post was more effective than conventional. A later save on the stretch from a powerful deflected Aguero effort was outstanding.

Wanyama and Moussa Sissoko bossed Fernandinho and Fernando from start to finish. The former's performance had everyone connected to Spurs purring, with perhaps the exception of Eric Dier. A perfect midfield shield, Wanyama's six tackles and his pass-completion rate of 83.9 per cent were the best of any Tottenham starter, per WhoScored.com.

City have won only two from 12 Premier League games when the boys from Brazil have been paired together in midfield. Guardiola doesn't often make the same mistake twice. A penny for Yaya Toure's thoughts each time Wanyama or Sissoko bullied Fernando out of possession or bounded past him.

Still easing his way back from serious injury, substitute Ilkay Gundogan could only manage a half. Guardiola will look back and wish it had been the first as City struggled to find a foothold.

The conservatism of the City side that started is a measure of how highly Guardiola rates his Tottenham counterpart. While Pochettino benched his most cumbersome player in Janssen, with aim likely being to introduce as much energy into his side as possible, Guardiola picked Fernando―the footballing equivalent of a back door on wheels―to mind the shop.

It's fairly safe to say that having won the title in all but one season in his career as a manager, the City boss can probably spot what the rest of us scream at the TV every week. Kolarov, Zabaleta, Clichy, Sagna, Fernando and "Jesus, Navas" playing in a Guardiola team is like the cast of The Bill starring in a Martin Scorsese film.

The 45-year-old was as magnanimous in defeat as he was complimentary about Pochettino before the game. Before the match, he had eulogized over his one-time sparring partner in Catalonia, describing him as one of the best coaches in the world, per Ben Reynolds of Sky Sports. His words looked particularly accurate at full time. 

"They were better, the better team," Guardiola conceded post-match, per Dan Kilpatrick of ESPN FC. "We played against a team who had the same trainer for the last two or three years and last season was fighting for Premier League."

While the majority have greeted Guardiola's every word as a teenager in the '60s may have done the Beatles, doe-eyed adulation bordering on Single White Female obsessiveness, it's hard to find anything other than eminent good sense when rummaging through his appraisal hoping for a morsel of Marcelo Bielsa-esque eccentricity.

"Football is a process—sometimes you win, sometimes you lose," the City manager continued. "When you lose, you learn what you haven't done properly. We have to keep going."

None of that seemed to remotely surprise Guardiola. His recent reaction to a question of whether he is targeting a quadruple this season (see below—NSFW) said a great deal about where he feels City are at as a football club. There is still much work to be done.

As for Tottenham, for want of a better word, Pochettino summed it up perfectly (via Gatward): "It was a nearly perfect performance."

And as the great American football coach Vince Lombardi once said: "Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence."

Tottenham certainly did that on Sunday.