Erling Haaland scored twice on Tuesday to settle Manchester City’s nerves as the English Premier League champions beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 to take a giant step toward a historic fourth straight English title.
The Norwegian forward tapped home a pinpoint Kevin de Bruyne cross early in the second half to score City’s first-ever league goal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. He also netted a late penalty to seal the three points for the visitors, minutes after substitute goalkeeper Stefan Ortega saved brilliantly from Son Heung-min.
The win takes City two points clear of Arsenal at the top of the table after 37 games.
Photo: AFP
Victory at the Etihad against West Ham United on Sunday would make them champions for a fourth consecutive season, regardless of the Gunners’ result against Everton.
No team in English top-flight history has ever won four titles in a row.
The Spurs’ defeat also guarantees that Aston Villa will finish in the fourth UEFA Champions League spot, joining City, Arsenal and Liverpool in Europe’s top-tier competition next season.
“The tennis players say: ‘The serve to win Wimbledon, the last game, is the most difficult one,’” City manager Pep Guardiola told the BBC. “It happened in our period against Aston Villa [in 2022]. And many, many years ago it happened with Sergio Aguero [scoring] in 93 minutes, 20 seconds against QPR [the Queens Park Rangers]. So there will be the typical game.”
Guardiola called for help from City’s fans to get them over the line.
“We know what we’re playing for,” he said. “The tension is there, the rival is so good. It’s why it is difficult, we know that. Everyone come to the stadium and make noise. These games are more difficult, but you have to do it. We’ll have one day off, two days to prepare, and then we will do our best.”
The build-up to the game in north London was dominated by a fierce debate over whether home fans wanted their own team to lose to leave City in the driving seat, with Arsenal their nearest challengers.
The Spurs supporters made their feelings toward their bitter local rivals clear in the opening minutes, with chants of “Stand up if you hate Arsenal” ringing around the stadium.
Tottenham had the first sight of goal, with City’s Ederson tipping over a fierce Rodrigo Bentancur effort before Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario kept out Phil Foden’s close-range shot.
City, who came into the match unbeaten in 21 league matches, were short of their fluent best while Spurs struggled to put the finishing touches on their attacking moves.
Moments after the restart, Vicario dove full length to keep out a stinging De Bruyne effort, but the visitors broke the deadlock in the 51st minute when Bernardo Silva found De Bruyne in the box and the Belgian crossed for Haaland to slot home from point-blank range.
Thousands of Spurs fans chanted: “Are you watching Arsenal,” as the City faithful celebrated in their corner.
The game then became disjointed as De Bruyne was raked down the Achilles by Pape Sarr before Ederson took a blow to the head in denying Cristian Romero and was replaced shortly after that by Ortega.
The German was called into action immediately, denying substitute Dejan Kulusevski from close range.
Time stood still when Son burst through with five minutes of normal time remaining, but Ortega saved with his legs when the South Korean seemed certain to score.
Guardiola fell to the ground, clutching his head in disbelief.
Instead City were awarded a penalty when Pedro Porro brought down substitute Jeremy Doku and Haaland smashed home in the 91st minute to spark wild celebrations from the players in front of the City faithful, taking his league tally to 27 goals for the season.
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