EPL: Drama At The Etihad As Spurs Stun Champions

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For the first time since the 1986/1987 season, Tottenham have completed the league double over Manchester City after a dramatic 2-3 victory over the champions on Saturday night with the hosts' summer target, Harry Kane stealing the show late on.

One of Tottenham's Winter arrivals from Juventus, Kulusevski opened the scoring under the first five minutes before Ilkay Gundogan restored parity.

Harrry Kane returned the visitors' lead after the break before Riyad Mahrez scored a 90th minute penalty in what looked like a game destined for the share of spoils, until Kane popped up late into added time to win it for Spurs as City's lead at the top of the table is cut to six.

After seeing his side record a convincing first leg victory away at Sporting Lisbon in their Champions League round of 16 tie, Pep Guardiola made just two changes to his team, with Kyle Walker and Ilkay Gundogan taking the places of John Stones and Riyad Mahrez in the starting lineup.

Antonio Conte on his part made four changes to his side that disappointingly lost at home the last time out to Wolves, one of which saw Dejan Kulusevski replace Harry Winks in the middle and Eric Dier returning to the back three ahead of Davidson Sanchez.

The visitors opened the scoring with arguably their first goal-scoring opportunity when Kane sent Heung-Min Son through with a defence-splitting pass. The South Korean made use of the space into the City box and teed up Kulusevski unselfishly for an easy finish.

Gundogan went close to leveling things in the 20th minute when he received the ball from Sterling who had worked up on the left side. The German needed just one touch to set himself up before dispatching an effort that was only denied by the base of the post.

13 minutes later, he finally had his way after getting help from the Tottenham goalkeeper. Sterling again with one of his runs on the left side sent a cross into the middle which was spilled by Hugo Lloris into the feet of the lurking Gundogan, who dispatched into an empty net with bodies on the line.

Spurs would regain the lead just before the hour mark. Prior to that, Son was denied by Ederson Moraes after he was played through by Kane. Although the City defenders moved to put him off, he still got his shot away to the right corner of Ederson's goal that the goalkeeper had to save.

Few second before the hour mark, both Son and Kane combined again to finally put their team back in front. The South Korean sent in a perfectly timed cross into the middle which was well read and met by Kane on an almost half volley past Ederson.

Lloris put up an astonishing one-handed save to deny Gundogan who sent a curling effort headed towards the right top corner; an atonement for his part in City's first goal.

The game could have been killed for good by the visitors when Kane scored his second of the night in the 74th minute. Kulusevski involved again, started the move on the right and sent a cross to the Spurs captain, who slotted into the bottom corner. The goal was subjected to VAR review and was rightly ruled out for offside against Kulusevski in the build up to the goal.

VAR came to the rescue of the hosts in the final minute of play when Bernando Silva saw his shot on the left inside channel come off the arm of the sliding Cristian Romero. The referee played the game on at first, but revisited after a call from VAR and the penalty was given. Mahrez expertly slotted into the top right corner of Lloris' goal with the goalkeeper standing no chance.

Just when we thought that was the end of the turpsy turvy encounter, Kane popped up in the final minute as he peeled off his marker to head him a perfectly weighted cross from Kulusevski past Ederson as Antonio Conte was sent into wild celebration.

Concluding Thoughts

A classic Premier League game it was, producing beautiful moments, goals and moot points.

It was a good win for Tottenham and a much needed one at that after losing their last three premier League games. The win takes them back into contention for the top four race.

City did not have a bad game, they just met a resilient Tottenham side that matched them and were able to contain their play.

I am forced again to talk about the double standards being operated by the officiating in the league. The Romero penalty incident that was awarded to City is very similar to the one that was denied Arsenal against Brentford earlier in the day. This keeps begging for answers of a possible agenda by the league in applying the rules to favour some teams.

Although I was very unhappy the penalty was given initially after a similar one had earlier on the same day being denied Arsenal, I was happier that Spurs eventually got to win it, even though they're a direct rival. And for my FPL, I wished I had captained Kane. Not too bad as Bukayo Saka also returned some good points.

The champions' lead at the summit is now down to sixx points and could be three before their next game as Liverpool will be playing their game in hand against Leeds United on Wednesday.

It looks like we are set for another tensed end to the Premier League campaign, but it waits to be seen how it'd eventually pan out as one may have doubted a few weeks ago that City's 12-point lead could potentially be down to three. This is the Premier League.