{"id":275908,"date":"2026-02-01T20:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T20:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/275908\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T20:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T20:58:08","slug":"setback-for-city-as-solanke-magic-dents-title-hopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/275908\/","title":{"rendered":"Setback for City as Solanke magic dents title hopes"},"content":{"rendered":"

A rip-roaring second half from Tottenham saw them fight back from two goals down to claim a 2-2 draw at home to Manchester City and boost fierce rivals Arsenal’s title bid.<\/p>\n

City looked set to cruise to another victory after first-half goals from Rayan Cherki and Antoine Semenyo put Pep Guardiola\u2019s men in control.<\/p>\n

Spurs had been booed off at half-time, but a controversial 53rd-minute own-goal by Marc Guehi gave Thomas Frank\u2019s misfiring team a lifeline before Dominic Solanke\u2019s sensational back heel levelled the scores after 73 minutes.<\/p>\n

There was still time for either team to find a winner, but the spoils were shared and Manchester City are now six points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal.<\/p>\n

It was a timely comeback for under-fire Frank, who has struggled to win over the Spurs fanbase and although this made it only two wins in 15 league fixtures, it prevented another defeat at home.<\/p>\n

Arsenal’s 4-0 win at Leeds on Saturday<\/a> increased the pressure on City, but they faced a depleted Tottenham with 11 players absent, including central defender Micky van de Ven.<\/p>\n

It meant Radu Dragusin was handed a first start in 12 months following his recovery from a serious knee injury and within 11 minutes the home side were behind.<\/p>\n

Not long after Semenyo had tested Guglielmo Vicario, City won the ball back from Yves Bissouma and within seconds Erling Haaland had released Cherki, who worked a yard of space on Dragusin and rifled into the bottom corner.<\/p>\n

It was too simple from a Spurs point of view, but the dream start for Guardiola\u2019s men and they could have made it 2-0 seven minutes later only for Haaland to lob the ball over the crossbar.<\/p>\n

Home fans were already restless when Cherki\u2019s twinkle-toes got him into the area and past a hapless Dragusin tackle, but his firm 23rd-minute effort was brilliantly tipped wide by Vicario even though a goal-kick was awarded.<\/p>\n

Frank\u2019s team did finally show some attacking intent when Solanke teed up Xavi Simons but his shot was blocked, and yet a minute before half-time City made it 2-0.<\/p>\n

Dragusin\u2019s chipped pass was intercepted by Rodri, who picked out Bernardo Silva and he teed up Semenyo to curl home.<\/p>\n

Boos followed at the break and Frank was now without captain Cristian Romero with Pape Sarr introduced, but in a 4-2-3-1 system, Tottenham improved.<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,
\nPep Guardiola reacts during Man City’s 2-2 draw away to Tottenham<\/p>\n

Conor Gallagher fired over before Destiny Udogie was superbly thwarted by fellow Italian Gianluigi Donnarumma.<\/p>\n

A Spurs goal was coming and it arrived in controversial circumstances in the 53rd minute when Simons produced a wonderful pass into Solanke, who turned Abdukodir Khusanov and kicked through the back of Guehi\u2019s leg to make it 2-1.<\/p>\n

VAR checked for offside and a foul, but Guehi\u2019s own-goal stood and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was alive as Guardiola received a booking from referee Robert Jones.<\/p>\n

Frank sensed the momentum with attackers Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel introduced in the 68th minute and three minutes later Solanke caused the stadium to erupt.<\/p>\n

Gallagher burst forward down the right and crossed into the penalty area where Solanke produced a sensational back heel finish over the scrambling Donnarumma to make it 2-2.<\/p>\n

It was all Spurs now as Simons played in Odobert, but Donnarumma made a vital save before Simons let fly and forced a sprawling save from the City goalkeeper.<\/p>\n

Second-placed City did up the ante late on, with Tijjani Reijnders squandering two chances before Tottenham substitute Sarr thwarted efforts by Guehi and Haaland to ensure the points were shared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A rip-roaring second half from Tottenham saw them fight back from two goals down to claim a 2-2…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-275908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}