Tottenham Hotspur continued their impressive recent Premier League record at Manchester City with a 2-0 win on Saturday as Joao Palhinha took advantage of a goalkeeping blunder by James Trafford and Brennan Johnson also scored.
Spurs, who have now won three of their last five league games at the Etihad, maintained their unbeaten start under manager Thomas Frank following an opening 3-0 win over Burnley.
Frank said: “We know it’s always difficult to play against City, here at Etihad even more.
“The clean sheet makes me very happy, it’s a big thing we’ve been working on, the defensive side of the game. Last year we had six clean sheets, so yeah, very big for me.”
Both sides squandered chances before Johnson broke the deadlock in the 35th minute, thanks largely to lazy defending by Rico Lewis.
Johnson latched onto a pass from Richarlison and finished with a shot into the top corner.
The goal was initially flagged for offside but that decision was overturned by VAR.
Palhinha, signed on loan from Bayern Munich this month, doubled the visitors’ lead in first-half stoppage time when new signing Trafford inexplicably tried to play out from the back to nervy gasps from the crowd.
Richarlison pounced, rolling the ball to Palhinha whose deflected shot found the back of the net.
“The coach pushed me to come here and showed me the project he has here at Tottenham.
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“It is such a great club, and I am really glad to be in the Premier League again,” Palhinha said.
