Hart frustrates Spurs in Premier League opener

| Monday August 16, 2010 00:00

Yet having created a succession of chances, Spurs cannot be happy with the quality of their finishing and will need to sharpen up to prosper in the Champions League. Hart won the first round of his goalkeeping battle against Shay Given and was kept busy for almost the entire opening half, Manchester City rarely crossing the halfway line for 30 minutes and taking something of a battering as a result. The visitors' £100m outlay does not appear to have bought them much style or shape. There was little width on show and an unbridgeable gap between their line of three defensive midfielders and their diminutive front trio of Shaun Wright-Phillips, Carlos Tevez and David Silva. The last must have spent the first half wondering if he was going to spend the whole of his City career seeing so little of the ball.

With Gareth Bale excelling on the left and Aaron Lennon more than occupying City's disappointing Aleksandar Kolarov on the right, Spurs put pressure on Hart's goal from the off.

Peter Crouch had a far-post header scrambled away, then the City goalkeeper made a superb reaction save after Jermain Defoe's close-range shot on the turn. Hart kept out a piledriver by Tom Huddlestone from the edge of his area then had to look sharp to prevent a deflected effort from Beno”t Assou-Ekotto dipping under his bar.

Perhaps Hart's best stop was standing up to Defoe when the striker was clear on goal after half an hour. When Bale did beat him to strike the foot of a post, Vincent Kompany was on hand to block the follow-up from Lennon.

All this was before City had managed to trouble Heurelho Gomes, who made his first save of the game from Yaya Toure eight minutes before half-time. For all that, City should have taken the lead when they caught Spurs cold at the start of the second half. Wright-Phillips was in the clear after staying onside to take Yaya Toure's pass, but was not quick enough to accept the chance before the cover got back. Kolarov, £17m from Lazio, did not return after a sluggish first half, an unpromising debut leading to questions about Roberto Mancini's judgment before anyone has even had a chance to glimpse £22m Mario Balotelli.

Pablo Zabaleta, in turn, found he had his hands full with Lennon's direct running, though, as the hour mark approached, it began to look as if Spurs might regret not turning their superiority into goals.

They sent on Robbie Keane and Roman Pavlyuchenko for the last quarter of the game, and the latter immediately brought two more stops from Hart with not especially convincing shots, although City also improved when Adam Johnson replaced Wright-Phillips to offer more penetration down the right. Practically the first thing Johnson did was skip effortlessly past Bale and Assou-Ekotto to set up Tevez with a chance. His shot hit Ledley King and spun narrowly over the bar with Gomes stranded, yet it was the closest City had come to a goal in 70 minutes of trying.

Spurs had the ideal opportunity to seal the points seven minutes from the end, but Keane could not quite convert Pavlyuchenko's cross. The ball came free to Bale, only for the Welshman to miscue in front of an open goal. He almost atoned a minute later with a smart low cross intended for Pavlyuchenko, but Kompany alone of the City defence was alive to the danger and the chance was lost. (Guardian)