(Football news) After suffering a mini-goal drought, Erling Haaland was back on the scoresheet while Riyad Mahrez scored a brace and Julian Alvarez opened the scoring as Manchester City defeated Tottenham Hotspur 4-2 in the Premier League. Tottenham took a surprising lead, scoring their opening goal following a quickfire burst from Dejan Kulusevski in the 44th minute and Emerson Royal scored a second in the 45+2nd minute before half-time. However, City fought back with Julian Alvarez scoring in the 51st minute while Erling Haaland managed to score the equaliser two minutes later.

Riyad Mahrez, who played a vital role in both the goals then gave Manchester City the lead in the 63rd minute and went on to double his tally in the 90th minute by capitalising on an error by Clement Lenglet. Before the Algerian’s first goal, Croatian winger Ivan Perisic hit the post but Spurs simply couldn’t find an answer to City’s comeback and have now lost seven of their last 13 top-flight fixtures. The result means Tottenham remain fifth, five points behind Newcastle United who have played a game in hand.

In team news, Manchester City made five changes from their defeat against Manchester United with the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Kyle Walker, Joao Cancelo and Phil Foden dropped to the bench while John Stones returned to the lineup alongside Rico Lewis, Ilkay Gundogan, Jack Grealish and Julian Alvarez. As for Tottenham, Antonio Conte made four changes with Emerson Royal, Ben Davies, Ivan Perisic and Rodrigo Bentancur returning to the lineup at the expense of Matt Doherty, Clement Lenglet, Ryan Sessegnon and Pape Sarr.

“We are far away from the team that we were. Not in terms of play, we played well enough, but there are many things like competitiveness. I cannot deny how happy we are, but we are far away from the team that we were. Not in terms of play, we played well enough, but there are many things like competitiveness, in terms of what we have to do in many things that we are far away from. Rico Lewis conceded four fouls, but they weren’t yellow cards because it’s Rico Lewis and we don’t react… We play because ‘my manager told me to play this and how to do this’, but there’s nothing from the stomach or the gut.

“Today, we were lucky but it wouldn’t change, sooner or later we are again [going] to drop points. [City are missing] passion, fire and desire and to win from minute one. It’s the same with our fans, they are silent for 45 minutes. They booed because we were losing, not because we played badly. We played well, we had more chances, and the expected goals from Tottenham were zero. So we were better. They booed because we were losing, but maybe it’s the same as our team. Maybe we were so comfortable winning four Premier Leagues in five years and that’s why we… you know. After the goal, they react, but that’s not the point.” – Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola

“If I compare it to the game last season, we played much better today. The performance was good. We played with personality. We created a lot of problems for Man City. Last season we played for a long, long period in our box. Today we were really brave to press high. When the result was 2-2 we had a massive chance to score. If you go up again 3-2, the game changes totally. Compared to last season, we’ve conceded a lot more goals. To me it’s no good. To concede four goals in one half, this is the first time in my career.

“We have to continue to work, to improve and try to do our best. We are really disappointed for the final result because we deserved much more at the end. This type of game with more experience you never lose. You don’t buy this experience. Well, you could buy this experience! (Laughs). We have just started the process to become competitive – it means we’re working on this aspect. A team with more experience never ever concedes four goals.” – Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte

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