Published: 30 January, 2014
by DAN CARRIER

Premier League
Spurs 1, Manchester City 5

SPURS manager Tim Sherwood saw his side receive a painful 5-1 thrashing by Manchester City at the Lane tonight (Wednesday) – and afterwards tipped the visitors to win the league.

“They are the best team in the Premiership by a country mile,” he said.

“They are going to be the champions. They do not score one and shut up shop, they just keep coming at you.

“It isn’t great to be the opposition manager and see them put you to the sword, but we have to accept they are great to watch.”

Arsenal only managed a 2-2 draw at Southampton on Tuesday, and with Arsene Wenger’s team dropping points, City had the chance to go top of the table.
They took that chance in emphatic fashion.

Sherwood said he felt his team were still in with a shout when they got to half-time just a goal down and said a dodgy penalty and a red card for defender Danny Rose helped City on their way.

Rose’s challenge on Edin Dzeko was seen by the referee as fair – but his assistant persuaded him to change his mind.

“I thought the referee got it right when he gave a corner,” said Sherwood.

“The linesman then flagged for a penalty and he got it wrong. We will be certainly appealing the red card.”

City went on to hit three more in a breathtaking show of force that Arsenal and Chelsea will find  hard to match.

City went ahead on 14 minutes when Sergio Aguero ghosted in between Tottenham’s centre-backs and clipped home the opener.

It could have been a romp as City poured forward and it took a world-class save from Hugo Lloris and some luck to survive a 30-minute battering that felt as one sided as the 6-0 defeat City dished out to Spurs in October.

But the first of two decisions that meant Spurs could feel hard done by came on 35 minutes when a Michael Dawson header hit the net but the linesman flagged for offside. Replays showed it was too close to call.

Spurs rallied but then came the game-changer.

On 49 minutes, Rose was judged to have fouled Dzeko in the box – although replays showed he played the ball.

As he walked off after receiving a straight red card, Yaya Toure dispatched the penalty.

City effectively killed the game three minutes later through Dzeko and went on to score two more.

Spurs substitute Etienne Capoue got one back but Sherwood admitted afterwards he felt his side had been beaten by a team that are looking more and more like champions-in-waiting as the season reaches the run-in.