Man City’s victory was inevitable, not due to jealousy or intimidation, assures OLIVER HOLT… Spurs supporters can relax

The bird of night did not sit in the market-place at Seven Sisters at noonday, hooting and shrieking, nor did lions prowl the streets of our capital city, but there have, nevertheless, been strange disturbances in the natural order in the last 24 hours.

Perry Groves, a former Arsenal star and scourge of their north London rivals, made plans to wear a Spurs shirt for the first time. Jamie O’Hara, a former Spurs player, said he would be supporting Spurs’ opposition Manchester City, on Tuesday night.

Spurs fans sang the City anthem, Blue Moon, on the radio. John, the taxi driver, a rabid Spurs fan, called TalkSport on Tuesday morning to insist it would be ‘the biggest embarrassment ever’ if his team beat City and handed the title to ‘that lot down the road’.

A little further north, abutting the M25, a group of Arsenal fans who call themselves the Ashburton Army let off fireworks outside the City team hotel at Waltham Abbey in the early hours of Tuesday morning. City’s players were still in Manchester but it’s the thought that counts.

It was hard to remember too many stranger things in the events that have decorated our top flight over the years but that is what happens when English football tribes try to come to terms with what is more powerful: the love for their own side or the hate for another.

For many Spurs fans, the idea of beating City on Tuesday night was anathema. They wanted Spurs to lose at all costs because anything else would damage City and hand Arsenal a last-gasp opportunity to win their first league title for 20 years on Sunday. That could not be allowed to happen.

The prospect of winning filled many Spurs supporters with horror. The fact that it filled them with horror filled Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou with horror. ‘If that is your world,’ Postecoglou said, ‘you need counselling. I understand rivalry but I’ll never understand anyone wanting their own team to lose.’

In the end, none of it mattered. City were far from at their best but they were still too good for Spurs. They were grateful to substitute goalkeeper Stefan Ortega for a critical late save that denied Heung-Min Son but this was a giant leap towards the title.

They won because they were always going to win, not because of the politics of envy or fear. They even broke a hoodoo along the way when Erling Haaland’s goal, just after half-time, became their first league strike at this stadium.

A second, in the first minute of added time, an emphatic Haaland penalty put the game out of reach. Judging by the reaction of City’s players to that goal, it may have put the title out of Arsenal’s reach, too. City have one hand on the trophy.

So Spurs fans can rest easy. Their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League ended last night but Arsenal probably won’t win the league so it turns out there was nothing to worry about after all.

As for City, only West Ham now stand between them and a fourth successive league title that would be an unprecedented achievement in the history of the English top flight. No other side has done that, not Herbert Chapman’s Huddersfield Town or Bob Paisley’s Liverpool or Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United.

If City win at the Etihad on Sunday, that fourth title is theirs. They are two points clear of Arsenal at the top now The truth, as those Spurs fans should have known, is that on the pitch, Manchester City don’t need any help from anyone.

Some of the ambivalence about the result seemed to have dissipated in the minutes before kick off when the fans joined in an unequivocal rendition of ‘When the Spurs Go Marching in’. That was soon followed by an even more lusty chorus of ‘Stand Up if You Hate Arsenal’.

The team responded. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg drilled a superb crossfield ball out to Brennan Johnson on the right and when he laid the ball inside to Rodrigo Bentancur, Bentancur stung the right hand of Ederson with a fierce drive that the City goalkeeper palmed over the crossbar.

After 15 minutes, though, Hojbjerg produced a piece of defending that would have won the approval of those Spurs fans arguing they should be giving City a helping hand. Hojbjerg slashed at a ball in his own box and only succeeded in lobbing it into the path of Phil Foden. Foden volleyed the ball towards goal but Guglielmo Vicario kept it out with a fine right-handed save.

If many had expected Spurs to be stymied by lethargy or indifference, they were mistaken. In fact, they were the better team for much of the first half. They played with an energy and determination that must have given Arsenal hope.

Kyle Walker did break free several times on the right, given alarming amounts of space by Spurs’ back line, but he could never find a teammate with his final ball. At the other end, Spurs’ high press discomforted City time and again.

City’s big players were quiet. Kevin de Bruyne was subdued, Foden was shackled by some particularly harsh tackling, Haaland struggled to get a foothold in the game and Bernardo Silva flitted around the margins.

If there was any doubt about how determined Spurs were to keep City at bay, it was dispelled on the stroke of half time. Haaland tried to slam home a volley and when it rebounded off a defender, Bernardo curled it towards the top corner. It looked like a certain goal but Radu Dragusin threw his head at the ball and diverted it wide.

Dragusin punched the air in defiant triumph and for the first time, the game began to feel as if it might produce one of most unlikely of rearguard actions. A hint of anxiety creased City faces as they headed back to the tunnel at the interval.

De Bruyne forced a brilliant one-handed flying save out of Vicario a minute after the break with a snap shot on the turn but a minute later, Ederson had to dive smartly at the feet of Son to stop the Spurs skipper finishing off a lightning counter-attack.

Three minutes later, City were ahead. It started with Foden, as so many things have started for them this season. He rode a 50-50 challenge with Cristian Romero, chested the ball down as he sprinted, outpaced Bentancur and then crossed into the area.

The ball eluded everyone and was retrieved by Bernardo on the right. Bernardo played De Bruyne in behind the Spurs defence and his pinpoint cross, accurate to the inch, was tapped over the line by Haaland from a yard out.

A great, guttural roar came from the City fans behind that goal. And as the television cameras panned to the ranks of Tottenham supporters, they caught a group with their backs to the goal, doing the ‘Poznan’, the leaping celebration that has become a City fans’ favourite.

That was soon followed by Spurs’ fans singing ‘are you watching Arsenal?’, which met a savage reaction from the other half of north London. Not long after that, Spurs overdid their show of determination when Romero slammed into Ederson as he challenged for a cross. Guardiola and the rest of the City bench were furious.

Ederson had to be substituted and minutes after his exit, his replacement, Stefan Ortega, made an excellent save with his legs from substitute Dejan Kulusevski after Kulusevski had wriggled through the City defence.

Then, with five minutes to go, the stadium held its breath. Son burst clean through after a mistake by Manuel Akanji and advanced on Ortega. Everyone expected him to score. He tried to clip the ball past the goalkeeper but Ortega stood up to him and blocked his shot with his right leg.

On the touchline, Guardiola collapsed to the ground in relief. A couple of minutes later, Pedro Porro fouled Jeremy Doku in the box and Haaland did the rest. The drama was over.

So much for an easy night.