Record-breaking Harry Kane fires Tottenham to 1-0 win over Manchester City

Manchester City’s 2022/23 Premier League title ambitions experienced another major setback as Tottenham beat the defending champions 1-0 at home thanks to a record-breaking strike from Harry Kane. The Englishman became the Tottenham all-time leading scorer with his first-half effort, taking his tally for the club to 267 goals, and the hosts frustrated Manchester City throughout the 90 minutes to hold on for a momentous 1-0 victory.

With Arsenal losing just their second game of the season at Everton on Saturday, Manchester City hoped to gain some ground against their championship rivals and cut down their lead to just two points with a victory against Tottenham. However, Pep Guardiola’s side were fighting against recent history, with his side losing on each of their last four visits to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium without scoring.

Manchester City enjoyed the lion’s share of possession in the opening exchanges, but it was Tottenham that struck the telling blow in the 15th minute to take an early lead. Rodri’s wayward pass in City’s defensive third was caught out by Pierre Emile-Hojbjerg, who set up Kane to fire past Ederson and put Tottenham 1-0 in front. Kane’s strike took him above Jimmy Greaves to number one on the goal-scoring charts for Tottenham and also made him just the third player after Alan Shearer and Wayne Rooney to score 200 goals in the Premier League.

City talisman Erling Haaland was kept quiet throughout the first period, but the visitors had a golden opportunity to level the scores just before the break when Riyad Mahrez smashed the bar with his volleyed effort from inside the box.

Chances came thick and fast in an end-to-end second half. Julian Alvarez had two shots drift wide, while Ederson made a couple of crucial interventions to deny Harry Kane and Son. The tensions reached a boiling point when Cristian Romero received his marching orders after earning a second yellow card for a foul on Jack Grealish, forcing Tottenham to see out the final few minutes with just ten men.

However, Manchester City could not find a way through the stubborn Tottenham defence and extended their winless streak in the white half of North London to five matches. With this defeat, Manchester City remain five points behind Arsenal at the top of the table, who have a game in hand.

Tottenham, meanwhile, gain some crucial ground in the race for the Champions League spots and are now just one point behind Newcastle in fifth place.