City Watch: Blues vanish Spurs curse before avoiding FA Cup scare

Last week, Manchester City faced Tottenham Hotspur in North London, a ground that, despite two great results last season, has been a nightmare to travel to for the players.

Up until last season, we had never scored a goal at that ground, so it’s no wonder that, given our torrid form this season at times, I was a little nervous before the game on Wednesday.

I may have mentioned before that I try to get to as many away games as possible, but I wasn’t able to make the trip down to London last week, and to my surprise, I had something to miss out on. City absolutely dominated the first half, with Erling Haaland adding to his tally for the season, and the 1-0 scoreline at half time flattered Spurs. The second half was a different imagine completely, with the Blues not looking quite as convincing and almost gave the game away at times.

Haaland added to first-half goal towards the end of the 90 minutes, but it was ruled out for a supposed hand ball. I was stunned at the decision, there was confusion about the initial call and whether it was given on the field or not, but more importantly, I couldn’t see any clear evidence that Erling had hand-balled it at all.

One key takeaway for me, not just from the Spurs game, but over the last few weeks, is one of our new signings, Abdukodir Khusanov. I feel like he was wrongly scapegoated after his unconvincing debut against Chelsea, but since that game, he’s shown his worth. THe first Uzbekistan player ever in the Premier League, he can’t speak the language, but he’s not letting it all get to him and he’s doing his talking on the field.

Following the trip down to North London, we played Plymouth in the FA Cup on Saturday. Now I hate to be a defeatist, but with City already out of the League Cup, Champions League and miles off the pace in the Premier League, I feel our only realistic chance of winning silverware this season is the oldest competition in English football.

Any early scare against the Championship side, who’d already knocked out Brentford and Liverpool, saw City 1-0 down, but unlikely hero, Nico O’Reilly stepped up and scored before the break and added to his tally in the second half. Kevin De Bruyne added a third at the death, seeing the Blues through to the Quarter Finals, and one win from Wembley.

Not only are we through to the next round, but with Fulham knocking out Man United, City are the only ‘top 6’ team left in the competition.

Following the conclusion of that game, we were drawn against Bournemouth away from home for a spot in the semi-finals. Que Sera, Sera, whatever will be, will be, maybe?