Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville believe Manchester City have a weakness at set pieces that will encourage many of the club’s Premier League rivals.
Pep Guardiola’s side started their title defence with an emphatic 5-0 win at West Ham on the opening weekend of the season but suffered a setback as they were held to a 2-2 draw against Tottenham on Saturday.
City, who had won their previous 15 home games in all competitions before Saturday’s draw, took the lead through Raheem Sterling in the 20th minute before Erik Lamela curled in a Spurs equaliser three minutes later.
Sergio Aguero restored the hosts’ lead ten minutes before the break, only to see Lucas Moura cancel out that strike with a header in the second half.
And Sky Sports pundits Carragher and Neville said the manner of Tottenham’s second equaliser would provide other Premier League rivals with an indication of how to get the better of the defending champions.
(Image: SkySports)
“The encouragement for other teams is Man City look like they have a slight problem at set pieces and it isn’t just what happened at the weekend,” Carragher explained on Monday Night Football .
“Teams like Tottenham are exploiting it. That is the one area where they do look like they have an Achilles heel.
“The problem for teams is getting a corner in the first place because they are that good.”
Despite taking just a point, City largely dominated the encounter, managing 30 shots on goal to Spurs’ three.
(Image: Getty Images)
Gabriel Jesus thought he had netted a last-gasp winner for Guardiola’s side, only to see his effort ruled-out by VAR.
And Neville agreed that the way Mauricio Pochettino’s side managed to earn an unlikely draw would give other teams confidence going forward.
“On Saturday what I saw was a team who had two chances in the game and took those two chances (Spurs),” added Neville.
“If City are going to lose this league there is going to have to be a lot more of that type of game where you ride your luck, get a bit of good fortune and take your chances.
“Mauricio Pochettino must have left thinking ‘how did we draw that game?’ and Pep Guardiola wouldn’t have believed it.
“But sometimes if you start to draw games that you shouldn’t do others can get a bit optimistic. But like we said, City were by far the better team.
“But they are small. It’s the corners where the other team are on top of the keeper that is a problem.”
