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(Credit: Imago)

Oliver Walton

Sat 23 August 2025 15:35, UK

Man City fell to their first defeat of the new season as Tottenham emerged with a 2-0 win from the Etihad Stadium on Saturday (23 August) afternoon.

Pep Guardiola’s side started brightly but were unable to take the lead as Omar Marmoush saw a shot from a tight angle trickle past the post after 10 minutes.

Tottenham soon went ahead as the interval neared, with Brennan Johnson sweeping the ball home past James Trafford after a quick break as VAR gave the goal after Richarlison had initially been flagged offside in the build-up.

Thomas Frank’s men doubled their advantage in added-time at the end of the first-half, with Pape Sarr capitalising on a mistake at the back before the ball fell to summer signing Joao Palhinha for him to fire it into the net for 2-0.

Man City were unable to hit back throughout the second period, despite dominating possession, and Spurs came away with a valuable three points to continue their strong start to the 2025/26 campaign.

Credit: Hasan Karim, Breaking Media

Marmoush was a bright spark throughout the first-half for City as he went close with his early chance and was then denied by a strong stop from Vicario after going through one-on-one.

The Egyptian forward was surprisingly taken off not long into the second period, despite looking like one of the few Citizens players who could create anything, but will surely keep his place in the side after a decent showing.

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The Belgian forward came on in Marmoush’s place and did impress down the left side late on as he gave Pedro Porro a lot of trouble and looked to bring his side back into the game.

He created one chance and completed 11 of his 12 passes [Fotmob] across his 37 minute appearance, and will surely be in Guardiola’s thinking for next week’s clash against Brighton, except potentially on the right-wing in place of Oscar Bobb.

(Credit: Imago)

Ederson has been heavily linked with a move away from Man City this summer, but will surely feel somewhat boosted after this poor showing from his apparent replacement, James Trafford.

It remains unclear whether the Brazilian ‘keeper will be moving on after eight years at the Etihad Stadium, yet Guardiola may well be rethinking his decision to drop him from his starting lineup, and so he will feel like a winner despite the loss.

Erling Haaland may as well have sat at home and watched his side’s loss against Spurs, as he did very little to impact the game and seemed to let it pass him by throughout.

(Credit Imago)

Despite his imperious showing against Wolves last time out, the big Norwegian striker had just one off-target shot (which was a missed big chance), five touches in the visitors’ box, completed one pass into the final third and won just two of his four duels [Fotmob].

Really poor by his lofty standards.

Trafford’s aforementioned struggles were on show for all to see in the first-half at the Etihad, as he could only palm Johnson’s shot into the net and then was at fault for the second Spurs goal as his weak pass led to Palhinha being able to drive it home.

The young shot-stopper has been trusted by Guardiola over Ederson so far, but he may be regretting his decision to play his new summer signing from Burnley over such an established, top-quality goalkeeper.

Trafford should have been sent off against Tottenham, Keith Hackett told Football Insider, and while he escaped a dismissal his time on the pitch wasn’t a happy one.

Rayan Ait-Nouri’s home debut for his new club came to an unfortunate end after just 23 minutes as he was taken off with an injury that he tried to run off but simply couldn’t.

He impressed in the season-opener against Wolves, but was unable to build on that here as Nathan Ake came on in his place, and all connected to the club will be worried about the timescale of his issue, as he did look in genuine pain.

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