Tottenham 0-1 Man City
by Joel Sharples
at White Hart Lane

Tottenham were left contemplating another gruelling season in the Europa League yesterday, after losing 1-0 at home to Manchester City.

Spurs gave the match a thrilling start, with the players clearly energised by fourth-placed Manchester United’s shock defeat at home to West Brom the day before.

In the first minute Nacer Chadli raced free down the left but his underhit cross to an unmarked Eric Lamela was diverted wide by Aleksandar Kolarov.

The resulting corner found Eric Dier completely unmarked six yards from goal but the young defender headed agonisingly wide.

They had another chance to take the lead moments later when Lamela’s through ball split the City defence, allowing Harry Kane to run clear.

However, the normally clinical Kane failed to hit the target and his powerful shot whistled just wide of Joe Hart’s right post.

Having survived the opening flurry, City began to come back into the game. On 11 minutes Sergio Aguero fired a warning shot, pinging a magnificent volley wide from a Kolarov cross.

However, Spurs continued to dominate possession, with Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason marauding forward to break up City’s passing.

Just when it looked like their energetic attacking play was about to pay off, City broke from a Spurs corner and David Silva slipped in Aguero who lashed his shot past Hugo Lloris at his near post.

Neither team could maintain the same intensity in the second half, but Mauricio Pochettino continued to push for the win, ending the game with all three of his strikers on the pitch for the first time this season.

Despite this, they failed to carve out any clear cut chances. Kane blasted well over from the edge of the box on 52 minutes and he should have done better when one-on-one with Hart after picking Martin Demichelis’s pocket in the box.

On a day that Chelsea secured the Premier League title, for both teams this season’s post-mortem will now begin.