Former Spurs coach insists win over City was not a ‘Mourinho masterclass’

Former Spurs defender and assistant coach Chris Hughton has claimed that the Lilywhites were quite fortunate to get all three points against Manchester City on Sunday.

Spurs were under the cosh for large parts of the game but Pep Guardiola’s side failed to make the most of their opportunities. The first half, in particular, was a case of attack versus defence with the home side not looking threatening on the counter-attack.

However, the game changed in the second half with Zinchenko’s sending off as Spurs maximised their numerical advantage and scored two fantastic goals through debutant Steven Bergwijn and Son Heung-min.

Hughton felt that the result could have been very different had the visitors made their early dominance count.

Analysing the game for Sky Sports (Main Event from 16:30 onwards on 02/02/20), the former Brighton manager said (as relayed by the Daily Mail): “In some ways, only because he’s got the result and ultimately it’s the result that matters.

“Spurs rode their luck, and on an average day, they put those chances away. But it’s about the result and how you get the result.

“You’ll have one extremely happy changing room and one extremely disappointed one. We’ve seen them in the past, but that wasn’t a masterclass.”

Meanwhile, Graeme Souness felt that the reigning Premier League Champions gave a good account of themselves on the night apart from a couple of errors.

He said: “They’ve played well today. There’s not a lot wrong with them. He’ll be angry at Zinchenko’s first booking, Mahrez’s poor corner kick that led to the goal and the sending off.

“Otamendi for the second goal, just stay where you are. People do make mistakes, but they do make them and they don’t mean to.”

Spurs Web Opinion:

We certainly rode our luck in the first half and had they been clinical, we would have been two down at half time. However, City create a lot of chances against all their opponents. What was impressive was the way we defended resolutely from the front. The performance and the clean sheet should give the players a lot of confidence going forward.

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