Premier League 2022/23

Sport
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Pep Guardiola: Trip to London is like going to northern Europe

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Tom Allnutt

Sunday February 05 2023, 10.00pm GMT, The Times

Pep Guardiola said travelling from Manchester to London was like a trip to “northern Europe” after watching his side fail to score at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the fifth time in a row.

Manchester City have been to Tottenham’s ground five times since it opened in April 2019 and never managed to find the net, much less win a match.

Their latest failure came in a 1-0 defeat on Sunday as Harry Kane scored the only goal for Spurs. It meant Guardiola’s side failed to capitalise on Arsenal’s defeat by Everton the previous afternoon and remain five points behind the Premier League leaders, who also have a game in hand.

Asked to explain City’s struggles away to Tottenham, Guardiola said: “They don’t let you create a lot of chances. They defend with nine players really, really well. They are organised, it’s not easy to break down.

“We have enough to score. I always feel we play good against them but always for some reason we are not able to score goals and we are not able to win. That’s the reality.”

He also cited the long trip south as a possible reason: “Coming to London is like going to, I don’t know, northern Europe. It’s four hours and 20 minutes, four and a half hours to a hotel, so you come to London, I’m exhausted.”

Arsenal supporters could breathe easy on Sunday evening as their north London rivals did them a significant favour in the title race. Asked if it was a missed opportunity for City, Guardiola said: “Of course, Arsenal have dropped points, it was an opportunity.

“It was important to be close and to keep fifth in the table [Tottenham] far away.” He added: “We are not in the position to think about being champions, just the next game, Aston Villa.”

Kane described it as a “magical feeling” after the winning goal made him Tottenham’s record goalscorer. It was his 267th goal for Spurs, meaning he overtook Jimmy Greaves’s club record, which had stood for more than half a century.

As the celebrations died down after his strike in the 15th minute, Kane saluted the crowd and aimed a wave towards the stand where his friends and family were sitting. The Spurs fans sang the ironic chant “he’s just a one-season wonder” while on the stadium’s big screens, Tottenham showed a congratulatory message that read: “Harry Kane, Tottenham Hotspur, all-time record scorer”.

After the match, Kane was given a short presentation ceremony in front of the Spurs supporters while his team-mates stayed out on the pitch.

“It’s quite surreal and just a magical feeling to do it here, in front of the home fans and to win the game, it was everything I dreamed about,” Kane said. “I have spoken about doing it over the last couple of weeks and I wanted to do it at this special place and in front of these amazing fans.”

Kane is yet to win a major trophy at Tottenham, whose academy he joined as an 11-year-old boy. The 29-year-old also became only the third player to score 200 goals in the Premier League, after Alan Shearer, who reached the record of 260, and Wayne Rooney, who hit 208.

“It’s been a lot of hard work, sacrifice and dedication,” Kane said. “I remember my first Premier League start against Sunderland at White Hart Lane on a Monday night and it wasn’t in my thought to reach this target or 200 Premier League goals. It’s hard to take it all in now.”

Greaves died aged 81 in September 2021 but his son Danny delivered a message of congratulations to Kane: “If anyone was to beat his record, he’d be absolutely delighted it was you.”

Cristian Stellini, the Tottenham assistant manager, said: “Harry Kane is football, it’s in his DNA.”

Stellini was in charge of Spurs for the day after Antonio Conte, the head coach, had surgery to remove his gallbladder in Italy on Wednesday. However, Conte spoke with his players on the phone in the changing room after full-time.

“We spoke to Antonio, we arrived in the changing room and Antonio was on the phone,” Stellini said. “He was really happy, gave compliments to everyone, especially to Harry, and he gave them all the day off tomorrow.”

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1825

Leicester were 500/1 I think.

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1827

?? Rumours as to who is player in question?

1828

Id imagine he’s an Arsenal player.

1829

The Vengaboys like him.

1830

P#rt?y

1831

It was widely reported at the time

1832

Seeing as the Greenwood charges have been dropped, is there a case being taken against the complainant seeing as accusations haven’t stood up?

If Pa&tey has a raped someone he shouldn’t be playing, obviously

1833

I think Bissouma played through similar allegations for the entirety of last season, and the charges were ultimately dropped.

A tricky one for clubs I’d imagine. Innocent until proven guilty and all that lark…

1834

Whilst I’d imagine there are cunts raping or just overstepping the mark of consent.
There seems to plenty of cases of women looking for pay days.

Rotten shit

1835

It’d be a brave move to take a case against the one person that could testify and send you to prison.

1836

Did Haaland get any kick yesterday?

1837

Have you followed the story at all?

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1838
2 Likes
1839

A flat track bully

1840

Their high powered lawyers will end up getting them off with a 20k fine,

1841

Haven’t we been here before?

1842

Might explain why pep has been selling so many good players

1843