Pep Guardiola has challenged Raheem Sterling to score 30 goals this season and with four in his first two games the England forward is well ahead of schedule.
Sterling opened the scoring in the 2-2 draw with Tottenham with a header, hardly his forte, though so inviting was the cross from Kevin De Bruyne he could almost have beaten Hugo Lloris with his eyes shut. It is probably reasonable to conclude that if De Bruyne stays fit this season and continues this level of assistance, Sterling will smash his personal goals target even if dropping points in their first home game puts a question mark over his side’s ability to defend their title.
David Silva has said this will be his final season and began this game on the bench, though whereas City once relied on his cleverness and creativity the baton has now been picked up by De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gündogan. But mostly De Bruyne, sometimes aided and abetted by Bernardo on the right. The Belgian has long had the ability to provide crosses of such precision that opponents find them hard to counter, and City’s first goal was a case in point.
Almost without looking, De Bruyne turned a harmless attack into something more threatening by digging out a high, looping cross to the far post. Sterling read it quicker than any defender, stealing in behind Kyle Walker-Peters for a free header from a narrow angle.
Up until that point the unequal struggle between Sterling and Walker-Peters had been one of the features of the game. City knew their winger had the pace and control to outrun the inexperienced right-back and hoisted balls towards his flank at every available opportunity. Walker-Peters was already being given a bit of a runaround on the floor before he lost Sterling with the ball in the air.
Spurs managed to counter that blow with a quick and unexpected equaliser, only to be undone again by another De Bruyne cross before the interval. Sergio Agüero had barely featured for the first half-hour but when Bernardo played De Bruyne behind the Spurs defence on the right the striker knew what to expect. This time the cross came hard and low, and Agüero was there to meet it with a trademark near-post flick.
Had Gündogan proved as deadly from De Bruyne’s next contribution the points might have been wrapped up by half-time. Instead the midfielder sidefooted narrowly wide after another precision cross from the right unerringly found its intended target.
De Bruyne opened the second half with a surging run of his own, apologising to the better-placed Sterling for shooting rather than passing as the goal came into view. The captain missed by inches during a spell when City were creating chance after chance without making their superiority count and Guardiola’s annoyance was clear when an inspired substitution by Mauricio Pochettino paid dividends.
Not that Tottenham were in any way lucky to claim a point. For all City’s dominance it was telling that David Silva was sent on before the end. Guardiola might have raised a few eyebrows when he described Spurs as the second-best team in Europe but there is a resilience to the Champions League runners-up that can only be admired.
Twice they fought back to level, Lucas Moura’s equaliser coming after a succession of City chances that should have left the outcome beyond doubt. Going behind after 20 solid minutes of City pressure did not ruffle their composure. They simply kept their shape, continued to look for openings and found an equaliser within three minutes.
Érik Lamela made scoring look easy, simply passing the ball into the net from the edge of the area, though credit is due to Tanguy Ndombela for finding him in space. Tottenham’s record signing looked an excellent acquisition, willing to drive forward from midfield in the manner Spurs had hoped, but also alert to the quick pass or accurate through-ball to set a teammate in motion. Defensively, he was caught out on a couple of occasions, though at least he will not find himself up against De Bruyne every week.
