London: Son Heung-min’s solitary goal sent Tottenham Hotspurs’ spirits high as they stunned defending champions Manchester City in their Premier League 2021-22 opener on Sunday. City also slipped to a fourth defeat in four visits to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium without scoring.
It was a difficult task for Nuno Espirito Santo as his side went out on the field without forward Harry Kane whose future at the club remains uncertain despite joining the training on Friday after a prolonged break. Kane has been in the interest of the City although nothing is finalised yet.
“Obviously Harry is very important to us,” Son said of Kane. “But let’s see. Last season we didn’t start well against Everton so we started well. I just want to enjoy that afterwards,” added the Korean.
The first half didn’t see much of goalmouth action. If City debutant Jack Grealish seemed off-colour, others didn’t impress too. The absence of Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Brunye was thoroughly felt till the final minute as City failed to register a mark.
On the other hand, the Spurs were quite impressive throughout and a deserving goal came in the second half through a counter-attack. Hugo Lloris saved one of City’s sparse attempts and Stephen Bergwijn found Son, who put it past Ederson rendering him helpless 10 mins into the second half.
It was also Espirito Santo’s third victory against Pep Guardiola. The Spurs boss seemed overwhelmed with the result and wasn’t shy of words to express his delight on the dream start.
“It was a great performance and everyone worked hard to get those three points.” said the former Portuguese custodian. “Manchester City is currently the best team in the world so we fought for the three points and that means a lot to us at the start of the season.”
FULL-TIME Spurs 1-0 Man City
— Premier League (@premierleague) August 15, 2021
It's a dream start for Nuno Espírito Santo as Son Heung-min’s second half strike helps @SpursOfficial see off Man City in his first #PL win as Spurs boss #TOTMCI pic.twitter.com/Av0LpXY2Ra
“It was good I think. The atmosphere was special because of the hard work of the players. They take pride in any fans when they worked hard,” added Espirito Santo. Keeping his word zero about the Kane saga, Pep went on to praise his new signing Grealish amidst the disappointing loss.
The former Barcelona coach also admitted that the absence of De Brunye had taken a huge toll on the team. “He was excellent,” the Spaniard said. “He played with character and created chances. Unfortunately, we couldn’t win for him on his first appearance but he played really well.”
“In terms of giving me the ball, he doesn’t lose the ball, he’s very dangerous near the penalty area,” Guardiola said of Grealish. “Kevin De Bruyne has not done a single full training session, he needs to train. He will need time to play 90 minutes.”
“We are the same people who won the Premier League and we are doing very good things and that’s normal,” he added. Spurs will be paying a visit to Wolverhampton Wanderers on August 22nd at the Molineux Stadium while Manchester City will be hosting Norwich City at Etihad the day before.
Earlier on the day, Michael Antonio scored a goal and assisted another as West Ham United beat Newcastle United 4-2 in an away match. Aaron Cresswell, Tomas Soucek and Saïd Benhrama also featured in the score sheet for West Ham while Callum Wilson and Jacob Murphy pulled back two goals for Newcastle.
