MANCHESTER, UK — Tottenham continued their impressive start to life under Thomas Frank with a deserved 2-0 win over a ragged Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
Frank’s Brentford teams were seldom an easy day’s work for City and Spurs’ record of three wins in the past four editions of this fixture in Manchester flagged up the prospect of a tough outing for Pep Guardiola’s new-look squad.
Indeed, only Erling Haaland, John Stones and Rico Lewis remained from the XI that was hammered 4-0 by Spurs last November, illustrating the rapid rebuild that has been undertaken since by the 10-time English champions.
Brennan Johnson concluded the scoring that time and Spurs’ Europa League final hero broke the deadlock in the 35th minute here, dispatching Richarlison’s cross. A VAR check for offside against the Brazil forward showed he was onside.
City showed flashes in the first half, with Omar Marmoush testing Guglielmo Vicario on a couple of occasions, but a young line-up still getting to know one another showed none of the steel of Guardiola’s best teams after falling behind.
Man City vs. Tottenham score
| Full time | Goalscorers | |
| Man City | 0 | |
| Spurs | 2 | Johnson 35′, Palhinha 45+2′ |
Venue: Etihad Stadium, Manchester
Referee: Peter Bankes
Starting Lineups:
Man City (4-3-3, right to left): 1. James Trafford (GK) — 82. Rico Lewis, 5. John Stones, 3. Ruben Dias, 21. Rayan Ait-Nouri (6. Nathan Ake)— 10. Rayan Cherki (20. Bernardo Silva), 14. Nico Gonzalez (16. Rodri), 4. Tijjani Reijnders — 52. Oscar Bobb (47. Phil Foden), 9. Erling Haaland, 7. Omar Marmoush (11. Jeremy Doku)
Tottenham (4-3-3, right to left): 1. Guglielmo Vicario (GK) — 23. Pedro Porro, 17. Cristian Romero, 37. Micky van de Ven, 24. Djed Spence — 29. Pape Sarr, 6. Joao Palhinha (4. Kevin Danso), 30. Rodrigo Bentancur — 22. Brennan Johnson, 9. Richarlison, 20. Mohammed Kudus (15. Lucas Bergvall)
MORE: Keep track of every game and every goal via SN’s live Premier League scoreboard
The period between Johnson’s opener and halftime was error-strewn, culminating in James Trafford’s dreadful decision to send a short goal kick to Nico Gonzalez. The former Barcelona midfielder had his pocket picked by Richarlison and Joao Palhinha netted his first Spurs goal as he blasted through a scramble of bodies.
Erling Haaland should have reduced the arrears from Rayan Cherki’s cross in the last act of the first half and, in truth, Spurs were only sporadically troubled after the break. Nathan Ake – on for the injured Rayan Ait-Nouri – had a shot blocked and Oscar Bobb had a strong penalty appeal rejected.
Spurs continued to look the more threatening side, at least until Phil Foden and Rodri came on for the final 15 minutes — two familiar faces that this new look City will need to see plenty more of as they navigate what could be a tricky season of transition.
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Man City vs Tottenham stats
| Man City | Stat | Tottenham |
| 10 | Shots | 12 |
| 4 | Shots on target | 5 |
| 1.51 | Expected goals | 1.08 |
| 61% | Possession | 39% |
| 503 | Passes | 324 |
| 7 | Corners | 2 |
| 7 | Fouls | 12 |
| 1 | Yellow cards | 4 |
| 0 | Offsides | 1 |
Man City vs. Tottenham live updates, highlights, and commentary
Fulltime
That’s a thoroughly deserved three points from Tottenham after an exemplary performance. They sensed their moment when City wobbled after Johnson’s opener, pounced on Trafford’s error for Palhinha to make it two and then closed out the second half in almost serene comfort. Plenty to ponder for Pep Guardiola after City’s sparkling showing at Wolves last week. Such inconsistency is something we might have to get used to from a City team that has changed so much from the four-in-a-row title winners. Thanks for joining us.
90+3 mins: The move ends with a chance for Solanke and Trafford produces his best moment of a torrid day with a double save.
90+2 mins: Spurs fans ole-ing as their team hog the ball .
90 mins: Four minutes to be added on. Danso replaces the second goalscorer Palhinha.
89 mins: Foden’s delivery is a shocker and City concede a foul. Sort of sums up their day.
88 mins: Bergvall goes clattering into Ake and City have a free-kick in a decent spot.
87 mins: A decent corner to the near post from Foden is cleared and Spurs break. Bergvall leaves Lewis in a heap and Odobert fires just wide.
85 mins: Foden’s deflected shot skims along the turf but Vicario watches it astutely. Bergvall replaces Kudus for Tottenham.
83 mins: Doku looks to have drastically overhit his cross but the diminutive Silva gets to it with a decent header that lands on the roof of the net.
79 mins: Rodri and then Foden get City moving through midfield and Doku has chance to run. He’s into th ebox, cuts back to Foden and Van de Ven makes a superb block.
78 mins: Richarlison and Johnson, who have both produced fine performances today, make way for Solanke and Odobert.
76 mins: Foden instantly into the action, scampering after a Doku pass and he spooks Romero into conceding a corner. Foden takes, Rodri gets up to meet it well, but the header is straight at Vicario.
75 mins: Bobb and Nico make way for City.
74 mins: Final roll of the dice for City. Rodri and Foden coming on. Odobert and Solanke ready for action for Spurs.
73 mins: Reijnders almost dummies one through for Haaland but Van de Ven makes the interception. Spurs can break but they recycle the ball. Smart play at this stage and with this scoreline.
70 mins: The first corner is cleared behind. The second comes in with lots of pushing and shoving in the box. The ball breaks to Lewis, who puts his shot somewhere in the vicinity of the old Bradford Gasworks.
69 mins: A scything Romero conceded a free-kick and gets booked for his foul on Lewis. Needless. Can City make Spirs pay? Ohhh, almost! Cherki’s cross is deflected across the face of goal. Corner.
66 mins: Bobb thinks he’s wona corner but it’s a Spurs goal kick. City struggling to make anything happen.
63 mins: Doku stands up his man but runs out of pitch.
62 mins: More woe from Trafford and Spurs have a throw-in deep in City territory. Kudus takes, the cross comes in and Richarlison heads over a little like he did from the free-kick a moment ago.
61 mins: Doku has been ust as careless as anyone else since coming on and Spurs have a free-kick. Porro whips a devilish ball into the box but Richarlison heads over.
57 mins: Bobb coughs up possession and Spurs can break again. City’s defensive willingness in this passage looking pretty limp. Johnson goes for glory from the left corner of the box and shoots way over. Frank is furious and hits himself on the forehead a few times.
56 mins: No foul against Palhinha on Doku and Spurs surge forward. Porro crosses for Richarlison at the back post, who can’t make clean contact under pressure and Trafford mops up.
54 mins: After Richarlison and Dias get inolved in a bit of nonsese, City make a double sub. Silva and Doku on for Cherki and Marmoush.
52 mins: Honestly, if you’re one of those old boys who likes to moan about passing out from the back ruining football, you’ll find a lot to like here. Spurs in disarray now but Cherki can’t capitalise.
48 mins: Promising position for City down the right and the ball is cut back into the box. Ake probably not the idea man on the end of it. The Dutch defender takes a careful touch before his shot is blocked.
Kickoff: 2nd Half
Off we go again. No changes for either side yet, but Bernardo Silva is warming up with just a bib over his kit, so I expect he’ll be joining us shortly.
Halftime
Howling miss from Haaland to conclude the half! Corner taken short and Cherki floated in a lovely ball that the big Norwegian should have buried.
45 mins+7: Bobb scampers into the Spurs box and wins a corner. This shoudl be the last action of the half.
45 mins+2: GOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!! Joao Palhinha!!!!!
An utter shambles from City. Trafford plays a hazardous short pass to Nico inside his own box. Spurs are all over it. The goalkeeper gets out to help put off Richarlison but Palhinha arrives to thrash through the bodies gathering in the goalmouth.
Oh my 🙈
A costly City mistake is capitalised on by Palhinha!@tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/HPkufm9Gyn
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) August 23, 2025
45 mins: Cherki overplays and City get away with conceding a corner. Guardiola’s men have been absolutely scrambled since going behind and could have done without seven minutes of stoppage time just being signalled.
40 mins: Replays show that Porro might have been fouled by Nico but that was outside the box and he tumbled into it. He’s still down.
39 mins: My word, all sorts going on around the City box. Trafford comes out and is very close to handballing it, now Porro is down in a heap. No penalty.
35 mins: GOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!! Brennan Johnson!!!!!!
Spurs finally get one of their breaks to work and Johnson is on the end of it to clatter past Trafford from close range. The offside flag goes up against Richarlison but, after a lengthy VAR check, the goal stands.
In the finest of margins, Brennan Johnson gives Spurs the lead over City following a VAR review!
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/FgMaK1POoq
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) August 23, 2025
34 mins: Ohh, Reijnders should do better there as he has the chance to play in Cherki but lofts a pass out for a goalkick.
30 mins: A City set-piece opportiunity breaks down and Reijnders finds himself one against two on halfway. He deals with Kudus smartly and the cavalry pour back, but that’s far from ideal from the hosts.
28 mins: A messy passage of play in midfield that Haaland rips apart with a buccaneering run. He slips the pass to Marmoush, who finds Vicario in his way again. Fine save.
25 mins: Spence has lots of room to get out from left back. He feeds Johnson, who is unable to get past Lewis this time but Frank will be happy about the spaces Spurs look able to exploit at the moment.
21 mins: City playing through Spurs a little more effectively now. Reijnders tries a first-time cross but there’s no one there. Ait-Nouri’a race is run and Ake is coming on afer some final instructions.
19 mins: Bobb with a touch that, frankly, shouldn’t be allowed before the watershed. He finds Reijnders, who drives forward but seems in two minds over whether to pass to Haaland or shoot. Punting a shot into the striker’s back kind of underlines that.
18 mins: Lovely pass from Bobb to Marmoush, who lines up one of his thundering drives. Vicario is sharply behind it.
17 mins: The City left-back is going to try to play on. The issue was a meaty and fair challenge with Kudus, so it might just be an impact injury he can run off.
15 mins: Ait-Nouri has pulled up and is down. Nathan Ake off to warm up and City might be forced into an early change.
13 mins: Marmoush finds Porro to his liking once more and Vicario is out smartly to thwart. City look good when they get to the Spurs box. Plotting the routes there has been their issue so far.
11 mins: Now Lewis and Trafford get into a mess and Richarlison almost capitalises. Honestly, this looks like one of those League Two games that Pep Guardiola gets blamed for ruining at the moment.
10 mins: City take a more direct route now and Porro is lax with Marmoush eating up the ground behind him. The Egtpy forward shoots just wide from a narrow angle.
9 mins: Just a three-man wall for Trafford, but Porro plants his shot straight into the middle of it. The ball comes back to the full-back, whose second attempt is much better and ripple the side-netting.
8 mins: City into strife in their own half again. Haaland comes back to help, gets into a mess, fouls Richarlison and this is a far more useful free-kick on the edge of the box.
6 mins: Porro pumps it to the back post, it’s kncoked back across and Haaland boots clear.
5 mins: There’s been some ponderous build-up play from City, who can’t quite find their rhythm. Now Nico dallies too long, is dispossessed by Richarlison and is forced to foul the Brazilian. A free-kcik about 35 yards from goal to the left for Spurs.
2 mins: Cherki, into those little pockets of space outside the box where he likes to operate, looks to slip a pass thropugh to Haaland but it’s intercepted.
Kickoff: 1st Half
A heart blast of Blue Moon and Sarr gets us underway. Vicario pumps long. Frank has brought his blitz kickoffs from Brentford to Spurs, but it’s out for a throw. City then look for Marmoush in attack. Lively start. “We want Levy out!” chants the Spurs contingent.
4 mins: Manchester City’s Lionesses’ contingent, led by club captain Alex Greenwood, just paraded the Women’s Euro trophy on the field and now here come today’s teams. Greeted by fireworks and pyrotechnics. It’s lunchtime, can everyone just grow up?
10 mins before kickoff: Another thing the teamsheet shows is the level of player turnover at City. Is the rebuild ongoing, or has it already happened? If we consider Oscar Bobb was absent with a broken leg, John Stones, Ruben Dias, Erling Haaland and Rico Lewis are the only players in the starting line-up today who were available to Guardiola this time last year. Only Stones, Haaland and Lewis started the 4-0 defeat to Spurs last November.
30 mins before kickoff: There’s plenty of transfer talk swirling around both clubs at the moment. Savinho remains an absentee for City with an undisclosed injury, a problem that has somewhat coincidentally aligned with Tottenham’s reported interest in the Brazil winger. That might ramp up again after Arsenal stole in ahead of their neighbours to be Eberechi Eze’s most likely destination.
Ilkay Gundogan and Manuel Akanji are two players Guardiola would generally count among his most dependable. Both not making the matchday 20 feels significant amid reported interest from Turkish giants Galatasaray.
1 hour before kickoff: Thomas Frank sticks with the back four that saw off Burnley and doesn’t revert to the three centre-backs approach that worked for the vast majority of the the UEFA Super Cup against PSG. The concession to steel comes in the form of a robust midfield three of Rodrigo Bentancur, Pape Sarr and Palhinha, while Mohammed Kudus and Brennan Johnson flank the in-form Richarlison in attack.
Your Spurs side 🖤
🔢 @krakenfx pic.twitter.com/kzK36I93LT
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) August 23, 2025
1 hr 15 mins before kickoff: The teams are in and there’s a full Premier League debut for Rayan Cherki, who scored off the bench for Manchester City at Wolves. Club captain Bernardo Silva makes way, while Omar Marmoush comes in for Jeremy Doku on the left of the attack. Ederson is fit again but James Trafford keeps his place in goal, while the returning Rodri and Phil Foden are on the bench as expected. Their inclusions mean Ilkay Gundogan and Manuel Akanji are not in the matchday squad.
Your first home line-up of 25/26! 👊🩵
XI | Trafford, Lewis, Stones, Dias (C), Ait-Nouri, Nico, Reijnders, Bobb, Cherki, Marmoush, Haaland
SUBS | Ederson, Ake, Doku, Rodri, Bernardo, Nunes, O’Reilly, Khusanov, Foden
🤝 @etihad pic.twitter.com/A7fV1jrDMR
— Manchester City (@ManCity) August 23, 2025
1 hr 30 mins before kickoff: So, when Spurs ransacked City in a 4-0 win on this ground last November, it was the moment when a wobble for Pep Guardiola’s team tipped into full-blown crisis. Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham also came from behind to grasp a thrilling 3-3 draw 12 months previously.
Then there was Harry Kane’s injury-time winnert for Spurs after Riyad Mahrez’s injury-time equaliser for City, one of only three defeats Guardiola’s men suffered en route to the Premier League title in 2021/22. One of the others was to Spurs as well. The only Etihad edition of this fixture City have won in the past four was when they came back from 2-0 down at halftime and Guardiola read the riot act during their treble seasons. Throw in the fact that Thomas Frank’s Brentford often made like very difficult for City and it feels like they’ll have to go some to keep last weekend’s optimism on track.
2 hours before kickoff. Hello and welcome to The Sporting News’ live coverage of Manchester City vs. Tottenham from the Etihad Stadium. This one has generally been a thriller over the past few seasons, so here’s to more of the same.
Man City vs. Tottenham kick off time
The Premier League match kicks off in Manchester at 12:30 p.m. local time.
Here’s how that time translates across some of the major territories:
| Date | Kickoff time | |
| USA | Sat, Aug 23 | 7:30 a.m. ET |
| Canada | Sat, Aug 23 | 7:30 p.m. ET |
| UK | Sat, Aug 23 | 12:30 p.m. BST |
| Australia | Sat, Aug 23 | 10:30 p.m. AEDT |
| India | Sat, Aug 23 | 6:00 p.m. IST |
Man City vs. Tottenham lineups, team news
Rayan Cherki comes in for his full Premier League debut for Manchester City after scoring off the bench against Wolves last week. Club captain Bernardo Silva drops to the bench as a result, while Omar Marmoush replaces Jeremy Doku in Pep Guardiola’s only other alteration from Molineux.
That means James Trafford retains his place in goal despite Ederson returning to the bench alongside fit-again duo Rodri and Phil Foden. Their inclusions mean Ilkay Gundogan and Manuel Akanji are not in the matchday squad.
Josko Gvardiol remains sidelined as he continues his recovery from a knock. Meanwhile, Savinho — a reported transfer target for Tottenham — is expected to return only after the international break as he too recovers from an injury.
Mateo Kovacic, too, is expected to return from an Achilles injury only after the international window next month.
Man City starting XI (4-3-3, right to left): Trafford (GK) — Lewis, Stones, Dias, Ait-Nouri — Cherki, Nico, Reijnders — Bobb, Haaland, Marmoush
Man City subs: Ederson (GK), Ake, Doku, Rodri, Silva, Nines, O’Reilly, Khusanov, Foden
Thomas Frank sticks with the back four that saw off Burnley last week instead of deploying the back three that worked so well for most of the UEFA Super Cup against Paris Saint-Germain.
Pape Sarr, Rodrigo Bentancur and Palhinha all start in a robust midfield three, with Mohammed Kudus and Brennan Johnson flanking the in-form Richarlison in attack.
In defence, Radu Dragusin and Destiny Udogie continue to be long-term absentees for the club. Attacking midfielders Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison are out for the foreseeable future with knee injuries.
Tottenham starting XI (4-3-3, right to left): Vicario (GK) — Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Spence — Sarr, Palhinha, Bentancur — Johnson, Richarlison, Kudus
Tottenham subs: Kinsky (GK), Danso, Tel, Gray, Bergvall, Vuskovic, Solanke, Odobert, Davies
Man City vs. Tottenham live stream, TV channel
Here is how to watch the match in some of the world’s major regions:
| Region | TV | Streaming |
| USA | USA Network, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo | Fubo, nbcsports.com, Universo NOW |
| Canada | Fubo Sports Network 2 | DAZN, Amazon Prime Video |
| UK | TNT Sports 1 | discovery+ |
| Australia | 9 Now | Stan Sport |
| India | Star Sports Select 1 | Disney+ Hotstar |
