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PREMIERSHIP: TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 0 MANCHESTER CITY 0

EYEWITNESS report from WHITE HART LANE

By DAN CARRIER

POOR Manchester City: the whole world is against them.

This morning, I got a phone call from a Gooner who said: “I’d like you lot to win today. I hate that lot…”

The black gold that has funded the Top Trumps style team building at Eastlands means these under achieving, also-ran’s inspire such feelings. Cityphobia is a new phenomenon. For so long, everyone in the football world has liked them, simply because they are not Manchester United. There can’t be a fan in the country who doesn’t smile gently on those rare occasions when City win the Mancunian derby.

But with the great riches bestowed upon, they are now Public Enemies Number’s One to 11. Throw in the Vieira and Adebayor issue, and they could have been my season’s bette noir.

But I just can’t bring myself to feel this way.

For so long City supporters have had to put up with permanent gloating from the Old Trafford brigade. They have suffered for their loyalty. Their fans have been through false dawns, awful boards, embarrassing defeats. But they have always been magnificent, sticking through it and ensuring massive gates, no matter at what level they were playing. Remember the day in 1999 when City gained promotion from the old Third division - they’d fallen two leagues in two years - and the almighty pitch invasion that followed? So it must be amazing to see a team of such talent being assembled for you to enjoy week, in week out: forget where the dosh comes from, or the fact it is financial doping. In this rotten, unfair world, does it matter? Sky Blues, enjoy it for me. Good luck - may you prosper, have a great season, and finish runners up to the Lilywhites.

While City are a work in progress, Harry’s lack of transfer activity simply means we have a team that’s ready to go.

It showed from the off. Spurs, pumped full of that opening day adrenaline, kept City penned back in the first half and they had little answer to Tottenham‘s clever passing and movement. Defoe and Crouch both tested Joe Hart in the opening ten, and then a super volley from Huddlestone on 15 gave the young England keeper the chance to show off his ability with a spectacular sprawling save. Moments later, Hart’s day got even better: Benoit Assou-Ekotto, who scored the first goal of the campaign last season against Liverpool, nearly did the same with a drive from distance that took a deflection and required Hart to become super bendy and tip it round the post.

Hart did everything required as Spurs poured forward and kept it from becoming a rout. Left hand, right hand, legs: every bit of his anatomy was called upon as his goal was pummelled. Shay Given on the City bench could be forgiven for having his head permanently lodged in his gloves at this wonderful display.

The second half saw Spurs still dominant, but that vital opener would not come. Harry swapped his front men mid way through but the fresh impetus just added to the feeling this was the Joe Hart roadshow. With just seven remaining, Hart stopped Keane again and the ball fell for Bale: on the strength of his display so far, with the goal at his mercy you’d have bet he’d finish it, but he skewed his effort wide.

So a nil-nil thrashing it was. Spurs needed to be more clinical in front of goal, but in fairness, they were faced in Joe Hart with a young English goalkeeper who showed Fabio Capello in the stands that the Number One jersey is going to be in safe hands for the foreseeable future.

RATINGS:

HEURELHO GOMES: 7. Simply had nothing to do.

GARETH BALE: 9. The complete left winger. Hit the post, should have had a penalty, set his team mates up time and again. A scintillating mixture of speed and vision.

TOM HUDDLESTONE: 7. Neat and tidy, knitting things together with 10 yard passes and then stretching the opposition with a pin point 40 yarder. Seems his tackling has improved over the summer, too.

AARON LENNON (Dos Santos, 75): 7. Industrious when not on the ball, dangerous in possession. Old complaint about the final ball not so much in evidence today, yet that moan will remain in games where we have so much possession but fail to score a hatful.

LUKA MODRIC: 9. Tough tackling is becoming more and more a stand out feature of the diminutive Croatian’s bag of tricks. The beauty is when he wins the ball, he can weave magic.

PETER CROUCH (Keane 67): 6. Slowed things up when required, but in a game of such attacking dominance the strikers could have had a hatful.

JERMAIN DEFOE (Pavlyuchenko 67): 5. Missed a one on one with Hart that he‘s being paid to nail, got knocked about a fair bit and tended to lose the ball in advanced positions. 

MICHAEL DAWSON: 8. Kept Carlos Tevez quiet all day.

VERDRAN CORLUKA: 6. Steady. Reliable. Lacks the pace and vision to go forward but is disciplined enough to know this.

LEDLEY KING: 7. By simply pulling on a shirt and lacing up his boots, he gives the crowd and team mates a massive boost. A quiet game but only because he makes it all look easy.

BENOIT ASSOU-EKOTTO: 8. His steadiness gave Bale the base to go forward on. On 46, his last ditch interception on Shaun Wright Phillips as he pulled the trigger showed a calm head and masterful timing.

Subs:

Cudicini, Kaboul, Pavlyuchenko, Keane, Palacios, Dos Santos, Bassong.

EYEWITNESS reports are filed by your Arsenal and Tottenham reporters from every home match.