The video will auto-play soon 8 Cancel Get the biggest City stories, analysis and transfer updates delivered straight to your inbox Invalid Email Something went wrong, please try again later. Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Ederson Had one effective dash out of goal to deny Kane a clear opportunity and his footwork was immaculate on a tough pitch 7 Kyle Walker Trying too hard against his old club - wasted one immense sprint out of defence with a leaden-footed pass for Aguero 5 John Stones Kept England colleague Kane under wraps with an immaculate display of timing - his understanding with Laporte grows with every game 8 Aymeric Laporte Another composed, classy display tinged with just the right amount of aggression - has become the rock in City's defence. 8 Benjamin Mendy Had a dreadful first half, his mistakes handing Spurs hope when there seemed none. Marginal improvement after the break. 4 Fernandinho Kept the machine ticking along, even when the pitch was conspiring against passing football - and his defensive work was absolutely magnificent 9 Bernardo Silva Popping up all over the pitch to give teammates options, and when Spurs pushed for an equaliser his work rate and pressing were invaluable 8 David Silva How on earth he failed to convert a chance from a few yards out is anyone's guess, but that was the only blot on another stylish and mesmeric display. 8 Riyad Mahrez City's biggest threat early in the game, and he underlined that with a well-taken goal, but after that he faded from view - and nearly handed Spurs a late equaliser 6 Sergio Aguero Had one clear chance when he carved back onto his left foot, but it was a weak effort - no faulting his effort but City needed more 6 Raheem Sterling Gave Spurs all kinds of problems throughout the game, not least when he destroyed Trippier to create the goal for Mahrez. Unplayable at times 8 Subs Kevin De Bruyne (for Aguero 71) Looks rusty 6 Vincent Kompany (for Silva 89) No time Gabriel Jesus (for Mahrez, 90) No time Not used: Muric, Otamendi, Foden, Sane<doc-sep>Manchester City beat Tottenham in a tight Premier League game that failed to live up to its lofty build-up. Riyad Mahrez gave Pep Guardiola's side an early deserved lead when he arrived in the box to convert Raheem Sterling's low cross. He could have added a second shortly after but Hugo Lloris was equal to his effort and saved his shot with some added help of the near post. Tottenham may feel that they could have taken something from this game, but Mauricio Pochettino's side were nowhere near their peak. Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Show all 22 1 /22 Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Hugo Lloris: 6/10 Made a couple of crucial saves but was once again put under lots of pressure and didn’t always look super confident in front of goal. Nowhere to be seen for City’s goal. Getty Images Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Kieran Trippier: 5/10 He was okay in an attacking sense and put in some dangerous crosses but he was the most susceptible for City’s goal and looked uncomfortable in defending for a lot of the evening. Getty Images Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Davinson Sanchez: 6/10 Been really impressive this season but today wasn’t his finest day. I don’t think it’ll be a fine day for most centre backs taking on City, mind you. AP Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Toby Alderweireld: 6/10 Was fine but less composed when not alongside Vertonghen. EPA Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Ben Davies: 5/10 Lost Mahrez for City’s opening goal and didn’t offer too much going forward. Danny Rose to come back in. EPA Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Eric Dier: 5/10 Made some unnecessary fouls as per usual and was bettered by City’s midfielders on the whole during the game. Subbed off after an hour. REUTERS Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Moussa Dembele: 6/10 Was better than his midfield partner and showed his strength at certain times but it’s still hard to play against this relentless City side. EPA Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Moussa Sissoko: 6/10 Has a few positive moments but lacks the composure on the ball in the key areas. AP Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Erik Lamela: 6/10 Like Lucas, looked good in sparks, but lost the ball just far too often, giving it back to Manchester City all too often. Provided the best chance for Spurs with a clever pass, though. AP Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Lucas Moura: 5/10 Showed some decent bursts of pace and looked a threat, like he has for a lot of this season so far, but his dive was rather appalling and he couldn’t find as much space as he has done this year. Getty Images Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Harry Kane: 5/10 Another off night for the English centre forward. Just hasn’t quite got back to his best yet and a really heavy touch in the first half set the tone for his evening. EPA Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Ederson: 8/10 Another fantastic display from the Brazilian as it was his long ball that set Raheem Sterling on his way early in the first half to set up Riyah Mahrez but he also made crucial blocks to stop Harry Kane. PA Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Kyle Walker: 7/10 A good performance for the returning full back. Caught out of position on a few occasions but a generally good showing. AP Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings John Stones: 7/10 Strong performance from a player who has had his critics. Getty Images Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Aymeric Laporte: 8/10 Continues to impress at the heart of the City defence, having played every minute so far this season. AFP/Getty Images Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Benjamin Mendy: 6/10 Definitely the most susceptible player in City’s backline. Made a couple of errors but got away with them as Spurs failed to capitalise. Getty Images Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Bernardo Silva: 7/10 Neat and tidy performance again, creating plenty of good moments for City. AFP/Getty Images Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Fernandinho: 8/10 Such a composed and impressive midfielder who allows the fluid attacking to happen in front of him. Getty Images Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings David Silva: 7/10 Wasn’t at his majestic best this evening and missed a fantastic opportunity to make it 2-0 in the second half but despite that, still the master at keeping the ball. Getty Images Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Riyad Mahrez - 8/10 Really improving in the blue (or purple) of City, and has put that Liverpool penalty miss behind him. Scored City’s only goal this evening and dedicated to the Leicester chairman, who sadly died in the Saturday night helicopter crash outside the King Power stadium. Getty Images Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Sergio Aguero: 6/10 Aguero missed countless opportunities to put the game to bed but he still led the line efficiently and despite the lack of goals, can be reasonably happy with his performance. EPA Tottenham vs Manchester City - player ratings Raheem Sterling: 8/10 Caused all sorts of problems for Kieran Trippier and set up City’s early goal. Just another good performance from the English winger. PA Trippier may not be the defender we all thought During the World Cup and the late stages of the 2017/18 season, Kieran Trippier was working his way into people’s team of the year in that classic ‘best eleven’ pub-talk question. His wide play and deliveries from deep with Tottenham carried him into the World Cup high on good form. His relentless excellence continued in Russia, peaking at that free-kick against Croatia. But has his ability been exaggerated a little? Guardiola was not blinded by his curling effort against Croatia in the World Cup semi-final and his side wasted no time in exploiting Trippier’s defensive vulnerabilities. Sterling had his international teammate in all kinds of trouble early on and profited from Trippier’s misjudgment of Ederson’s long kick. The right-back got caught under the long punt forward and headed the ball into Sterling’s path, setting him up to go past Toby Alderweireld and square the ball to Mahrez to open the scoring. Trippier is a talented player with a huge role in this Tottenham side going forward, but his performance does make you wonder whether Serge Aurier or even highly-rated Kyle Walker-Peters may be better against top opposition. Pochettino likes to rotate his full backs and relies on them to be an integral part of his flowing system, but the ease at which City were able to exploit the spaces on the right side may tempt him to re-think. Kieran Trippier struggled against Raheem Sterling (Getty Images) Tottenham’s use of Wembley falls to a pitiful low Tottenham’s delayed stadium and over-reliance on the national stadium has been a complete embarrassment for the club, and against Manchester City it fell to a new low. A Premier League game of the highest order featuring two of the best sides was played on a pitch that had been used to host an NFL match just over 24 hours before kick-off. The result was a pitch that should never have been played on. Although the playing surface contained sections that would not look out of place on the Hackney Marsh pitches, the actual impact it had on the ball was less than first feared. This is thanks to the Desso system in place that combines grass and plastic to form a playing surface, which means that underneath the green is no actual mud. However there were uneven areas and the appearance was a grim eyesore.<doc-sep>This was not quite pitch perfect from Manchester City but they still proved too strong, far too defensively resilient for Tottenham Hotspur as they impressively returned to the top of the Premier League table. But on a frankly embarrassing pitch, after the heavy-duty damage caused by the NFL match just a day before, it felt like an occasion ruined; an eagerly-anticipated Big Six showpiece game that was left resembling a pock-marked eyesore. It was simply unacceptable and certainly hampered the contest. It was no fault of the players. For City it was a case of never mind that quality feel the width as they collected the three points they needed and now, after 10 games, they can reflect on the fact that they have already faced Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs away from home – except a two-thirds full Wembley is not really Spurs home - and remain undefeated and have not conceded a goal. With the score-line it was the slenderest of victories for City but also provided a sixth clean sheet in a row in the league and that is beginning to feel almost as formidable as their normally free-scoring attack. It is certainly a new dimension to Pep Guardiola’s side and one that will make them even harder to surpass this campaign. In fact there has just been four shots on target – just four – against them in their last four league games and only 17 for the campaign so far. They have conceded just three league goals as John Stones and Aymeric Laporte have emerged as their first-choice pairing at centre-half. For Laporte it was a 19th league game since he arrived at City last January. He has won 17 and lost none.<doc-sep>
RIYAD Mahrez fired Manchester City back to the top of the Premier League as the champions won 1-0 in their pitch battle with Tottenham on Monday. Playing on the scarred Wembley turf just 24 hours after it was damaged by an NFL fixture, City’s peerless quality and a predatory finish from Mahrez helped them ignore the pitch problems. It was an emotional moment for former Leicester star Mahrez just 48 hours after the death of Foxes owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha in a helicopter crash outside the club’s King Power Stadium on Saturday. A sixth win from their last seven league games lifted Pep Guardiola’s unbeaten side back above Liverpool on goal difference. Guardiola hailed City’s Champions League win over Shakhtar Donetsk last week as the finest display of his reign in Manchester. This was a far more prosaic performance, but it must have been just as encouraging for Guardiola, given the way City subdued a Tottenham side who had lost only two of their previous 21 league games at Wembley. City were rock-solid at the back as they equalled the club record of six consecutive league clean-sheets. It was a dispiriting evening for fifth placed Tottenham, who now trail City by five points after their first league defeat in five games. Mauricio Pochettino this week admitted he is enduring his “worst feeling” as Tottenham boss this season, despite guiding them to their best Premier League start, and this sloppy display will have done nothing to improve his mood. His cause wasn’t helped by the presence of the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Philadelphia Eagles at Tottenham’s temporary home a day earlier. There were large areas of worn brown turf down the middle and both flanks, while the NFL logo in the centre circle and yard-line markers the length of the pitch were all still visible. The NFL logo was still on the pitch for kick off/ Source: Supplied But City were unfazed as they raced into the lead after just six minutes. Tottenham defender Kieran Trippier misjudged a long kick from City goalkeeper Ederson, his errant header allowing Raheem Sterling to steal possession and cut past him into the penalty area. Sterling showed tremendous composure as he picked out Mahrez’s run and the Algerian finished the raid with a clinical close-range finish. Mahrez pointed his fingers to the sky in what appeared to be a tribute to Vichai. Following the tragic accident, Mahrez had posted two images of himself with Vichai on Instagram, with the caption: “One of the best person I’ve ever met. I will never forget you. Rest In Peace Vichai.” There were plenty of anguished glances at the pitch from both teams when passes went astray, but the surface couldn’t be blamed for some of the miscues. Tottenham's Erik Lamela, 2nd right, misses a chance to score. (AP Photo/Tim Ireland) Source: AP In a fractious finale, Lamela and City’s Benjamin Mendy escaped punishment despite coming to blows. City seemed less troubled by the surface and they scythed through the Tottenham defence with a flowing move that ended with Hugo Lloris pushing Mahrez’s drive onto a post. Sent clean through on goal by Erik Lamela’s pass, Harry Kane had a golden chance to equalise but his poor first touch, which couldn’t be blamed on the turf, allowed Ederson to block with his legs. City had lost just two of their last 101 Premier League games in which they led at half-time and Sterling should have doubled their lead soon after the restart. Bernardo Silva’s pass gave David Silva a clear sight of goal, but he couldn’t get a shot away and instead found Sterling, whose close-range effort was blocked on the line. Sergio Aguero fared no better, the City forward shot tamely at Lloris from just 10 yards out and then saw a more potent long-range strike repelled by the Tottenham keeper. Dele Alli, back after a four-match absence with a hamstring injury, came on for the last 15 minutes and the Tottenham midfielder almost set up an immediate equaliser. Alli’s run and pass picked out Lamela, but the Argentine somehow blazed over with only Ederson to beat.