Tottenham stun Manchester City in Premier League opener

The reigning Premier League champions suffered an opening day defeat at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur as Nuno Esperito Santo began his tenure in North London with a 1-0 victory over Manchester City on Sunday. In the absence of Harry Kane, it was Son Heung-min’s second-half strike that separated the two sides as capacity crowds returned to Premier League stadiums for the first time in over 18 months.

The big talking point ahead of the fixture surrounded the inclusion and omission of the various England stars that featured heavily at this summer’s European Championships in the respective line-ups. Pep Guardiola opted to include Raheem Sterling and the new £100 million man Jack Grealish in his starting XI, while Harry Kane was deemed too unfit to even make the bench for Tottenham on the opening day against the team he is reportedly looking to join in the final two weeks of the transfer window.

Manchester City played with their usual 4-3-3 system with Jack Grealish used in the midfield three as a number 8, opposed to on the left-wing, and it was the former Aston Villa man who nearly made an instant impact on debut. City started as the brighter of the two teams with Grealish driving at the Tottenham backline before picking up a foul on the edge of the area in the opening few minutes.

Tottenham could barely cope with the constant pressure from the visitors in the first 10 minutes of the game, as Manchester City swarmed into the Tottenham half at every opportunity. However, Nuno Esperito Santo’s side settled into their defensive shape as the half wore on, and looked increasingly threatening on the counter-attack with the pace of Son, Moura and Bergwijn in Tottenham’s front three.

The opening goal eventually came from a counter early in the second half, with Tottenham breaking at pace after Hugo Lloris saved a City attempt. Steven Bergwijn released Son down the right-wing and the Korean international cut inside before releasing his shot from outside the box that rattled into the bottom corner.

Tottenham should have doubled their lead a few minutes later, with Lucas Moura once again carving through the Manchester City midfield with ease on the counter before releasing Steven Bergwijn whose shot drifted just wide off the near post.

Despite bringing on the likes of Kevin de Bruyne and Gabriel Jesus, Manchester City couldn’t find the same attacking fluidity that helped them win the title last season and looked incredibly rusty on the opening day with Hugo Lloris relatively untroubled in goal throughout the 90 minutes. What this game did highlight, however, was Manchester City’s need for a central striker as a focal point in the attack, with Pep Guardiola’s side expected to submit another bid for Tottenham’s captain Harry Kane before the transfer deadline.