Manchester City regained top spot in the Premier League table after beating Spurs 1-0 tonight at Wembley.
Much of the build up to the game was dominated by the state of the Wembley pitch, which was cut up badly after the NFL game played their on Sunday, and Man City boss Pep Guardiola admitted it had been a difficult night for his team against a powerful Spurs side.
City attacker Riyad Mahrez scored the only goal of the game after just six minutes when he stroked home from close range after a Raheem Sterling cut back.
Guardiola’s side squandered plenty of opportunities to kill the game off and it looked as if they would be made to pay for their wastefulness, but Spurs attacker Erik Lamela blasted a late chance over the bar when clean through on goal and City held on for the win.
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Despite beating their top-six rival Guardiola warned his team that they will have to be more clinical in future otherwise they will be punished.
“We missed a lot. You cannot expect against Tottenham to score a lot of goals, the pitch was complicated and we played against a physical team – with [Mousa] Dembele, [Davinson] Sanchez, [Toby] Alderweireld, [Eric] Dier – incredible physicality and the pitch was so complicated, it was so difficult.’’ Guardiola told BBC Sport.
“In the first 15-20 minutes of the second-half we should have the game over and the big events, like the Champions League, if we are not more clinical, sooner or later we are not going to win.”
Victory for City sees they move above Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool into first place, while Spurs remain in fifth one point behind London rivals Arsenal.