DBasia.news – The surprise happened in week 26 of the Premier League. The defending champion and leader of the standings, Manchester City, surprisingly lost 2-3 against Tottenham Hotspur at the Etihad Stadium, Sunday (20/02) morning WIB.
Ilkay Gundogan’s two goals were scored by Ilkay Gundogan (33′) and a Riyad Mahrez penalty (90+2′), while Dejan Kulusevski’s goals were scored by Dejan Kulusevski (4′) and Harry Kane’s two goals (59′ 90+5′). Man City dominated 72% of possession, shooting 21 shots (four on target).
But the game and tactics of Antonio Conte’s three Tottenham defenders became an anti-Pep Guardiola’s tactics. Tottenham defended strong and relied on the counter-attack, the game was efficient.
“Big win for Spurs under Conte, they played on the counter-attack and struggled to break down the opposing defence. Big games suit them better than playing against teams that defend,” said netizen OsmanZtheGooner.
Guardiola’s defeat from Conte made the Italian coach a nemesis or kryptonite, Guardiola’s new weakness. According to Opta Conte, one in five coaches has beaten Guardiola twice or more with different clubs.
Previously there were Jose Mourinho (Real Madrid, Manchester United, Tottenham), Jurgen Klopp (Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool), Mauricio Pochettino (Espanyol and Tottenham), and Nuno Espirito Santo (Wolves and Tottenham).
Tottenham are also the fourth team of all time to beat Guardiola’s City twice a season, before Chelsea, Man United and Wolves.
In the other match Liverpool defeated Norwich City until now the distance with City is six points adrift (Liverpool still played one game less). City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan is frustrated and admits his team is not used to the defeat.
“This is not a situation we are not used to. We know from the last few years that Liverpool are always a contender,” Gundogan told BBC Sport.
“They were always up there. We knew they would try everything to make our life as difficult as possible.”
“The good thing is they still have to come here to the Etihad, but there are still a lot of games to go.”
“We kind of thought we had saved (a draw). If you look at the whole game, we deserved to win.”
“But football is crazy sometimes and today we made an easy mistake. We gave them the ball to have the possibility to retaliate and that cost us,” explained Gundogan.