Turnaround highlights Spurs are up for fight

Tottenham 3 Man City 1

Tottenham’s recent dip in form has left the club apparently drifting towards another, all too familiar near miss. Yesterday, though, in seven second-half minutes, Andre Villas-Boas’s side tore up the script and offered a clear indication that this time, they have the ability to last the course and claim a place in next season’s Champions League.

Gareth Bale was inevitably at the heart of a stirring comeback that was triggered by the arrival midway through the second half of Jermain Defoe, Tom Huddlestone and Lewis Holtby from the substitutes’ bench. Provided with fresh impetus, Spurs finally sparked into life and Clint Dempsey cancelled out Samir Nasri’s early goal in the 74th minute before Defoe and Bale completed the win that Villas-Boas can claim as an impressive tactical victory.

Having been out on the floor, apparently destined to fall further behind Arsenal and Chelsea, their main rivals for the remaining two places of the all-important top four, Tottenham demonstrated courage and conviction to stun a Manchester City side intent on ending the season on a high.

The outcome all but confirmed City’s one-year stint as champions is over — Manchester United need only beat Aston Villa at Old Trafford tonight to reclaim the crown — but Roberto Mancini and his players knew that anyway. What will concern the City manager more was the way his side abandoned a winning position when they appeared to be in total control of the game.

The answer can partially be explained by Villas-Boas’s decision to move Bale out to the more open spaces of the right flank. From there, the Wales international, back in the side after a two-game absence with an ankle problem and clearly less than 100%, had more freedom to attack City while Defoe provided a far more willing target than the anonymous Emmanuel Adebayor.

“In the second half we started to find our rhythm, to find more space and better passing,” said Villas-Boas, the Tottenham manager. “The impact from the boys who came off the bench was tremendous in the game. That really helped our game improve and we managed to find the spaces to unlock them and score the goals we needed.”

Sitting two points behind Arsenal having played a game less, Tottenham’s destiny is now in their own hands.

“We are in control because we have the game in hand but the game in hand we have is against Chelsea and it’s a difficult game in Stamford Bridge and this is considering that we score all the points possible before that fixture,” Villas-Boas added.

City took control in the fifth minute when Nasri volleyed home from James Milner’s cross and Tottenham had no reply during a lacklustre first half. The pattern was maintained after the break before Villas-Boas rang the changes and four minutes after Defoe appeared they were level when Dempsey turned home Bale’s low cross.

Spurs were lifted and four minutes later went ahead when Defoe scored his first league goal of the year, curling in an excellent finish from Holtby’s pass. Then Bale took centre stage, collecting Huddlestone’s through ball and chipping the onrushing Hart.

“We made two mistakes and lost control of the game,” said Mancini, who then reflected on his side’s failed title defence.

“United are not a better team but they deserve to win this title because we lost a lot of points in games we probably didn’t deserve to lose. But United won a lot of games in a row with goals and deserve to win the title. They had a better attitude because they lost last year. They bought some new team in the summer and they scored a lot of goals. They conceded a lot of goals but they scored more. It is important.

“Now we have a time when there are good players on the market. All the teams every year want to improve and we work for this.

“And also we will work on our mistakes because we made some mistakes in the season.”