EPL results: Kane-less Tottenham beat Man City in season opener

August 15, 2021 6:53 pm

Tottenham defeated Manchester City by a solitary goal in their opening day fixture of the English Premier League (EPL) at their London stadium on Sunday.

Heung-Min Son was the matchwinner as the London side welcomed Nuno Espirito Santo, their new manager, with an opening day victory over Man City, the EPL champions.

The loss is Man City’s fourth consecutive defeat at Tottenham in all competitions, as it ended their 10-year record of the opening day wins in the EPL.

Son led the line for Tottenham in the absence of Harry Kane, their prolific scorer who could move to Man City. The visitors also had Jack Grealish, their £100m singing, on from the start.

Man City, with a £500m starting line-up, were all over Spurs in the early stages with Ilkay Gundogan (twice), Fernandinho, and Joao Cancelo all narrowly missing the target.

Espirito Santos’ men only came alive before the end of the first half through Son’s half chance, while Riyad Mahrez sliced wide for City.

Tottenham scored ten minutes into the second half through Son after a well-orchestrated counterattack. Lucas Moura found Steve Bergwijn who carried the ball over 30 yards before releasing Son to steer a low shot into the far corner beyond a motionless Ederson Moraes for 1-0.

Bergweijn should have doubled the lead but could only find the side-netting before a rattled City regained composure to test Hugo Lloris through Grealish while Cancelo shot wide.

Kevin de Bruyne was brought on by Pep Guardiola to salvage something from the match but could not breach their host’s defence as a resolute Tottenham claimed a famous victory to the delight of the capacity crowd.

RESULTS