Johnson and Palhinha strike as sharp Spurs silence blunt Manchester City
Tottenham Hotspur's Brennan Johnson celebrates scoring the opener. Pic: Martin Rickett/PA Wire.
WHO needs Eberechi Eze?
Tottenham shook-off the embarrassment of their North London rivals Arsenal hijacking a £60m move for the England midfielder in perfect style as they lived up to their billing as Pep Guardiola's bogey side.
It's now eight defeats at the hands of Spurs for the Spaniard, more than he has suffered against any other Premier League club, as the defensive frailties of last season's trophyless campaign returned to haunt the deposed Champions.
Maybe it's something to do with the local air after a first league away win for six months sealed by first-half goals from Brennan Johnson and Joao Palhinha.
Tottenham are clearly mad for it in Manchester, unbeaten by either the blues or the reds in this city for more than two seasons.
Magnificent to a man in defence, the visitors were good value for a second successive victory to start the campaign as they inflicted a first defeat in 12 matches on City to go top of the table.
It felt like a statement result, despite winning here even more emphatically under Ange Postecoglou last season by a four-goal margin.
Unlike during the affable Aussie's chaotic reign, Spurs don't look like conceding every time the opposition attacks.
After 13 games without a clean sheet, it's now back-to-back shut outs in a perfect start under Thomas Frank.
City fielded their youngest team for more than 15 years to leave them with the thick end of half a billion pounds worth of talent on the bench.
They threw on Jeremy Doku, Phil Foden and Rodri in an effort to salvage a point, but Guardiola’s changes were too little, too late.
Spurs surrendered 29 points from winning positions last season but rarely looked like adding to that unwanted statistic. The damage was done in a 10-minute spell before half-time as City shipped two eminently preventable goals.
A slick counterattack allowed Richarlison to spring a decidedly unconvincing offside trap and hare down the right, providing an inviting low cross which was swept home by Johnson.
The goal was initially ruled out for offside against the Brazilian, but awarded after scrutiny by VAR.
It got even worse for Guardiola's hapless deference in first-half stoppage-time. Goalkeeper James Trafford's suicidal short pass from a goal-kick saw Nico Gonzalez easily dispossessed by Pape Sar, and when the ball broke loose, Palhinha was on hand to fire home the second from 10 yards.
City had their moments in a first half where Spurs recovered from a slow start to eventually take command.
Omar Marmoush might have had a hat-trick inside half an hour, rolling an early shot from a diminishing angle across the face of goal after pouncing on a weak back header from Pedro Porro, before twice forcing decent saves from Guglielmo Vicario.
As they came to terms with the ramifications of their woeful defending, there was still time to halve the deficit, but Erling Haaland capped 45 minutes to forget for the hosts by heading over from six yards after engineering space at a corner.
Rodri was similarly wasteful with his first touch, sending a free header from a corner straight at Vicario 15 minutes from time with his side's first effort on target of the half.
Micky van de Ven produced a brilliant block to deny Foden as Frank's men held out in relative comfort and they could have even embellished the margin of victory after fashioning presentable late chances for substitutes Wilson Odobert and Dominic Solanke.
Trafford 3; Lewis 4, Stones 3, Ruben Dias 4, Ait-Nouri 4 (Ake 23, 5); Reijnders 4, Gonzalez 3 (Rodri 75, 5); Bobb 3 (Foden 75, 5), Cherki 6 (Bernardo Silva 54, 5), Marmoush 5 (Doku 54, 4); Haaland 4.
Gonzalez.
Vicario 8; Porro 8, Romeo 8, van de Ven 8, Spence 8; Sarr 8, Palhinha 8 (Danso 90, 6), Bentancur 7; Kudus 6 (Bergvall 86, 7), Richarlison 8 (Solanke 78, 6), Johnson 8 (Odobert 78, 5).
Johnson, Romero, Richarlison, Porro.
Peter Bankes.
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