It was perhaps understandable that many supporters might’ve gone into Friday’s 4th Round FA Cup match with City with a sense of confidence. We’ve had City’s number ever since the days of Peak Poch, and Pep’s squad had yet to win—or even score—at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. And, under Ange, we bring both a belief and a system into each match.
But in the first ten minutes of our FA Cup contest, it looked as if we lacked both the belief and the system. City, they of the squad built not by millions but billions, have a way of winning trophy matches, like when we lost the League Cup final to them in 2021 under caretaker manager Ryan Mason. We were holding on for our lives as City pressed us into submission. Afterward, we did well to play ourselves into the match, and no doubt after a hair-drying halftime speech from Ange, our boys came out strong after the break and grabbed the lion’s share of possession for large stretches.
Things predictably tilted back toward City when Pep brought on Doku and De Bruyne at the 80’ mark. (How nice it must be to leave your best attackers on the bench and still send out a quality XI thanks to petro dollars.) KDB has set the standard for passing and precision play for many years. When Christian Eriksen was at his peak for us, or when Harry was sending Sonny clear on goal with insightful gems, De Bruyne was the first person who would come to my mind in comparison. He’s the only person on City I allow myself to root for. His introduction terrified me, and while Doku gave Pedro Porro a lot to handle, de Bruyne almost instantly caused Højbjerg to revert to form after playing a pretty good match up to that point.
It seemed inevitable that City would score the winner on a cheap, controversial goal. Ruben Dias looked to have pushed Vicario (and thrown an elbow at our keeper) as de Bruyne took a corner in the 88th minute. Many of us have reasonably conceded that should not be considered a foul and asked why Vicario did not do better there—or why a defender failed to get in between them (hello, vice captain Romero?), as City was doing the same thing on all their corners. But as others have noted, a keeper is usually given the benefit of doubt on such scuffles in the box…except of course when it’s us against a team such as City who don’t need the extra help but are routinely granted it.
That said, we were clearly second best on the day and a draw would’ve flattered us…and arguably would’ve been a worse result for our efforts to finish strong in the League. (Recent history suggests a replay at the Etihad would’ve resulted not just in a defeat but a season-ending injury to any of van de Ven, Romero, Bentancur, or Maddison.) Without our South Korean talismanic captain, we had nothing going forward. We managed a lone shot attempt versus City’s 18 and forced just two corners to their 14.
The home supporters were audibly frustrated with our chronic failure to find runs from Timo Werner, who made many smart ones. The usually brilliant Deki Kulusevski played as if being controlled by PEH on PS5. Destiny Udogie lacks the long game of Pedro Porro, and Porro himself might’ve done better on his squared pass to Timo in the first half that otherwise could’ve produced a one-touch scoring chance.
On one of the rare occasions Timo was released on goal, 33-year-old Kyle Walker, who checked out on us during our 2016-17 campaign in anticipation of millions from the Middle East, displayed the elite speed he still possesses and rendered Timo a silver medalist in that sequence by dispossessing him in a way that looked surprisingly easy given Werner’s own pace.
Safe to say we’ve been spoiled in recent seasons watching the precision timing of the best scoring duo in Premier League history. Presently, Son is gone, Bentancur looked fatigued, Maddison’s clearly not back to full fitness yet, our starting 8 and 6 are at AFCON (we particularly missed Sarr in the middle against City), Werner’s only been here for five minutes, and Brendan Johnson lacks confidence.
A word on that. People. Stop going after BJ on social media. Please. He’s 22. Are you happy with all the choices you made at 22? Do you remember the early struggles of Bale, Kane, and Sonny? Give the kid a break. Let him grow into the team under Ange. In the meantime, you’re not helping his confidence.
In short, it’s disappointing to be eliminated from both domestic cups, but now we can focus exclusively on the league, and City can go on to loftier goals after finally scoring on our pitch after nearly 9 hours of play. Having failed to score in a match for the first time under Ange, look for us to start another streak and make a run like we did in similar circumstances to close out the ’16-17 season. Or, hell, let’s just win it, if only to piss everyone else off.
USMOTM: Mickey van de Ven. Our back line were heroic, and vdV is back. His combination of size, speed, and smartness is unparalleled among Premier League defenders. Did anybody else worry when we saw him stretching out during the annoying delay to confirm the offside call on a correctly disallowed goal early in the first half? Many suspect his injury v. Chelsea may have been due to the frequent stops and starts of that abysmally officiated disaster. His fitness is vital to the remainder of our season.
USSOTM: I was tempted to hand this to Skipp again for that Cruyff turn he pulled off after coming on at the 72’ mark. (Congrats to Skippy for his 100th match for Spurs!) BUt you know what? I’m going to give Spur of the Moment to PEH. I’d hoped Skipp would start so that Bentancur could man the 6, but Ange felt differently and, for 80 minutes, at least, our Viking cement mixer played pretty well and even struck a Maddisonesque through ball in the first half. I still think he has no future with the club, but credit a solid 80 where credit is due.
Thanks, Cameron!
Excellent read as always Rob!