January 26, London – Manchester City, the FA Cup champions, won 1-0 at Tottenham Hotspur on Friday, but it took them till the 88th minute to secure their spot in the fifth round thanks to a tenacious goal by Nathan Ake.
After moving into their new stadium in 2019, City had never defeated Tottenham or even scored a goal there. However, Ake scored from close range when home goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario mishandled a corner from Kevin De Bruyne, causing the ball to fall loose.
Tottenham may have few genuine grievances considering that they were consistently subpar against Pep Guardiola’s team and hardly made Stefan Ortega make a significant save.
“Today we had an excellent performance. I was happy from minute one to minute ninety-five. Coming here is tough, but we are attempting to protect the title,” Guardiola remarked.
“We create a lot in every game and have courage with or without the ball so I’m really pleased.”
Eight-time FA Cup winners Chelsea were held to a scoreless draw at home by Aston Villa three days after making it to the League Cup final, and second-tier Bristol City and Premier League Nottingham Forest also ended scoreless at Ashton Gate.
Sheffield Wednesday drew 1-1 with Coventry City; there were goals, but no winners.
Considering their success elsewhere, Manchester City’s record at Tottenham has been somewhat of an outlier.
They had lost their previous four Premier League games there without scoring, and in the 2019 Champions League semi-final, they had lost 1-0 there before losing in an exciting second leg match that they won 4-3.
When the most recent match entered its final minutes, 101 attempts at goal had gone unrewarded for City at Tottenham’s opulent new arena, which had welcomed 9,000 City supporters on Friday. This was down to the efforts of Bernardo Silva and De Bruyne.
But under pressure from Ruben Dias, Vicario was unable to handle the ball in a packed area, and Ake pounced.
Oscar Bobb had an early shot disallowed for offside as City dominated the first half, forcing the usually attack-minded Tottenham to resort to desperate defending.
Up until the final 25 minutes, when City substituted De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku, the second half was more evenly matched. Vicario denied Silva, and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s error caused De Bruyne to miss by inches.
The hosts had just one attempt on goal, and not even playmaker James Maddison, who came off the bench for his first game since suffering an ankle injury in November, could spur them on.
Since manager Ange Postecoglou came over, it was the first time Tottenham had failed to score in a competitive game.