Manchester City took advantage of Arsenal's draw on Tuesday with a 5-1 smashing of Tottenham at White Hart Lane to take over the top of the table. The Citizens earned the three points with five different players making the scoresheet, including Stevan Jovetic in his Premier League debut.
The Montenegrin came into the match late in the first half after Sergio Aguero picked up a knock. Aguero's injury has yet to be clarified by the club, but they'll hope it's minor considering the rough schedule ahead.
The Spurs fell apart after the break on Wednesday and City capitalized with four goals to finish off Tim Sherwood's side. Even with the victory and top of the table, Manuel Pellegrini assured the media that it's too early to name the Citizens as title favorites.
"I think it’s too soon to be the favorites – there’s a lot of matches to play,” the City manager said. "If we continue to play the way we are, we will have chances to win but it’s early. We played some fantastic football in the first-half – we scored just one goal but we had three or four more clear chances to score."
Aguero gave Manchester City the early lead with persistent pressure on the Spurs' back line which led to his 15th minute goal. Tottenham thought they had an equalizer late in the half when Michael Dawson tapped in a costless-kick from Christian Eriksen, but it was rightfully ruled offside.
A controversial call led to a penalty by Yaya Toure to start the second half and Danny Rose was sent off with a red card. Etienne Capoue scored a consolation goal midway through the final 45 minutes, but City ran away with the win and an 11-1 aggregate over the Spurs this Premier League season.
"I don’t think we deserved just one goal from the first half – of course playing with one player less is more difficult for Spurs but I don’t the game changed in that moment," Pellegrini added. "We were the team that had all of the chances, all of the possession and scored five goals. We also missed many clear chances."
Captain Vincent Kompany was more than delighted with the away victory at Tottenham, but he addressed his concerns for Aguero after the Citizens' star striker went down due to injury.
"It was the way we played, it’s not just the result – we enjoyed it. It’s a great time to be part of Man City," Kompany told BT Sport. "It’s bad news to lose Sergio but we’ll have to see, I don’t know how bad it is. There’s good news though – Jovetic stepped up and scored today and he looked like the player we thought he was when we got him with this performance."
Manchester City will now move on to face Chelsea next Monday in a crucial league match before taking on a rough February schedule. Pellegrini's side has continued to impress and improve throughout the season and they'll look to continue that form in the coming weeks.
Can Manuel Pellegrini and the Citizens remain atop the Premier League table and compete for other trophies as 2014 begins to heat up?
