Hart frustrates Spurs in Premier League opener

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.