Manchester City 2-2 Tottenham Hotspur: 5 talking points
Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur played out a thrilling draw, both sides scoring twice during the match. City turned out to be the dominant side in their backyard as they constantly hounded the Lilywhites, but a resilient Spurs side despite being outplayed for large portions of the game managed to get a solitary point at the Etihad.
In doing so, Spurs pulled off a feat that no team in the last fifteen Premier League fixtures was able to do, Lucas Moura's goal signaled the end of a fifteen match winning streak, during the period of which, City scored 37 goals and conceded two.
Rahim Sterling opened the scoring from a sublime cross by Kevin De Bruyne. City were remiss for conceding an unavoidable goal when Erik Lamela swung the ball in the right corner past Ederson.
It was from this point that Pep Guardiola's wards laid siege to the Spurs defense, forcing defensive errors as the team in white unsuccessfully tried to play through the press. City deservedly took the lead after another brilliant De Bruyne delivery was latched onto by Sergio Aguero, directing the ball past Hugo Lloris.
Lucas Moura's introduction after the break steadied the game in Spurs' favor. The diminutive Brazillian headed in the unlikeliest of goals, with Kyle Walker being suspect of ignoring his marker. City again led an onslaught of attacks on Lloris' goal post but were unable to take their chances.
Gabriel Jesus' short-lived goal in the ninety-second minute, was viewed as a deserved goal by his teammates, but just like the breathtaking UEFA Champions League Quarterfinal meeting of these sides last season, V.A.R played a huge result on the bearing of the outcome, ruling the substitute's goal out.
Ultimately both sides settled for a point, here are 5 talking points from the match.
#5 The double pivot of N'dombele and Winks fails to play through the home side's press
Mauricio Pochettino decided to use the double pivot of Harry Winks and Tanguy Ndombele to play through the press of a marauding City forward line.
Coupled with the Englishman's fine passing skills and the Frenchman's balance of physicality and deft touch, Pochettino aimed at unsettling the Mancunians, hoping to push back their midfield, however, the duo failed to live to the task assigned by their manager.
Ndombele and Winks considerably slowed the play down, this might have initially helped Spurs from a defensive point of view but the failure to exploit this passage of play when transitioning in attack meant Spurs gave away the ball to City as quickly as they had won it.
City recycled the ball with quick distributions to the forward line and opted to attack from the wings, scoring in quick succession. The inability of the pair to play in quick forward passes through the channels when in possession cost their team attacking opportunities and pinned them in their half.