Manchester City edge past Spurs on a pitch not fit for Sunday League

What a great advert for football. American Football, that is. Rather than Premier League football. The NFL crest still clearly visible in the Wembley centre circle, the yardage lines marked out, the centre of the field and the flanks worn to the bone beige from all the action.

There was no hiding the match between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Philadelphia Eagles the day before and there could well have been a directive from both managers, Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino and Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola, to go longer more often than usual on a pitch that was, quite frankly, an embarrassment. One of the English football calendar’s most prestigious matches played on a surface that a pub team would’ve jogged out on to sheepishly on a Sunday.

Even setting the pitch aside (which is quite hard with a game of football), it really wasn’t a great advert for Premier League football at all. A particularly poor quality match — especially when you consider the sides involved; two of the league’s best ball players — in front of a tired-sounding 56,000-sized crowd. Wembley has been Tottenham’s home away from home, until everyone became confused about which part of the country they’d be playing their next home match in.

Touchdown!

The game kicked off with a pass back and, in traditional NFL fashion, a punt up field by Spurs. Then City’s sixth-minute opener — the only goal of the match — came from a long ball from goalkeeper Ederson. Hoof up field, Kieran Trippier made a hash of it with a weak header back allowing wide receiver Raheem Sterling to run in behind. Trippier had sprinted back to defend the red zone, but Sterling beat him easily and, when Hugo Lloris came out, squared for Riyad Mahrez to finish. Touchdown!

Three minutes later, Spurs striker Harry Kane, an NFL fan away from his own sport, shot narrowly above the crossbar from just less than 20 yards. It was clearly just less than 20 yards because he had just crossed the 20-yard line etched on the pitch in white before he struck the ball. There was some confusion for a moment as to whether he had been awarded three goals for a field goal — but usual Premier League rules applied, and it was simply ‘over’.

Grass roots

There was some irony to the Football Association being denied around £900million, from the potential sale of Wembley to Fulham owner Shahid Khan, to pump into grassroots football and then forcing two of the country’s top teams to play on a pitch of a similar quality to those kids around the country have to use every single week. There you go, lads, see how you like it.

So some of the finest, most technically gifted footballers in the world were pitted against each other and supporters were treated to the ball bobbling between them. Or, in the case of Moussa Sissoko in the first half, bobbling straight out of play.

It was not the FA’s fault, of course. What were they supposed to do? They can’t drop everything for a Premier League club who may or may not use their facilities at any given moment.

Spurs being unable to move into their new stadium this season caused them to play this match the day after a long-scheduled NFL fixture.

Missing quarterbacks

There were a few selection decisions which suggested the managers were weary of potential injury from the conditions. City’s Kevin De Bruyne has been making a comeback from two-and-a-half months out and started their last match. He was benched, only coming on in the final 20 minutes.

Dele Alli was also back in Tottenham’s squad following a month out with a hamstring problem, but he was not risked either, until quarter-of-an-hour was left. Neither was Christian Eriksen — Pochettino perhaps not wanting to test his ankles. De Bruyne’s and Eriksen’s absence meant the game was, for the most part, missing some of its most inventive quarterbacks.

It fell to Lucas Moura to try to make something happen from nothing for Spurs early in the second half — chipping a ball long to Kane who sprinted in behind City’s defence. He was through on goal, the crowd noise rose. So did the linesman’s flag, for offside. With the lines every 10 yards, there really was no excuse for the linesmen to get it wrong.

A bizarre passage of play ensued soon after. Bernardo Silva was weaved inside Tottenham’s penalty area, he passed across to his namesake David, who controlled the ball and seemingly only had to tap it in, but instead passed back to Sterling, who took a few more touches until he was blocked. You don’t literally need to carry the ball into the end zone, guys.

By the end it was hard to tell where the NFL ended, and the Premier League began.