Manchester City 3-2 Tottenham Hotspur: How Redknapp Caused the Loss

After Tottenham and Manchester City's encounter ended in heart-stopping fashion, most of the talk has rightly centered around Mario Balotelli and Howard Webb.

How Webb missed clear red card offenses by Joleon Lescott and Balotelli, and a debatable one from Scott Parker on Micah Richards, is befuddling.

Balotelli's was clearly the worst of the bunch, as he back-heeled Parker in the head (as Redknapp seethed in his post-match interview) and clearly attempted to stamp on him, all with Webb watching only a few yards away (see video below).  The offense was so clear that the FA hardly waited 24 hours to dose out retroactive punishment.  To make matters worse, Balotelli went on to almost single-handedly win the match for Man City with a great stoppage time play.

However, looking at his performance at the 2010 World Cup final, where he lost control of the match and allowed a Nigel de Jong boot to Xabi Alonso's chest to go unpunished, makes this incident a little less surprising.

While these were atrocious misses by the incompetent cue-ball of a referee, the harsh reality for Spurs' supporters is that the match was not really decided by Mr. Webb.  Unfortunately, it was the quick-trigger of Harry Redknapp that cost Spurs on this day.

After falling behind 2-0, a quick glance across the faces of Spurs' players would reveal their dejected states.  Really, there looked like no way back into the match.

That is, until a lifeline was handed to them by Stefan Savic, in for the suspended Vincent Kompany.  Savic produced a dumbfounding header to release Jermaine Defoe and allow him to slot away the easiest of goals and get Spurs right back into the match.

A few moments later, Gareth Bale's cracker of a goal leveled the scoreline.  Advantage Tottenham, right?

Well that's what any right-minded person might think.  If you had polled pundits at that time, I think they would have thought Spurs the more likely to go ahead and win the match.  

However, Redknapp disagreed.  Just three minutes after the equalizer, he took off Rafael van der Vaart, the Dutch forward whose threat is always ample, and replaced him with Jake Livermore, the young defense-minded midfielder.  Clearly, 'Arry was ready for the draw.

Livermore played the rest of the match like a young player making his 13th appearance in the Premier League against the league leaders.  In short, he was not quite up to snuff.  Worse yet, the match that looked to be swinging Spurs' way turned into a contest on equal footing.  No longer was the ball up Manchester City's side, but traveling box to box.

Perhaps keeping VDV on or replacing him with a more attack-minded substitute would not have produced the winner, but it would surely have allowed Spurs to keep on the front foot.  And what better way is there to defend against Man City than by attacking?

Sure, Balotelli was the villain of the match, and Spurs' fans can rightfully feel hard done by the blundering referee.  However, when looking to cast blame for the loss, don't forget about Harry.