Spurs comeback stuns Man City




Tottenham produced a stunning fightback against Manchester City to boost their Champions League ambitions and leave Manchester United three points away from winning the Premier League title.

City led through Samir Nasri’s early strike before Spurs hit back with three goals in seven second-half minutes.

Clint Dempsey’s tap-in levelled before Jermain Defoe fired past Joe Hart.

Gareth Bale, returning from injury, dinked in the third as Spurs moved level with fourth-placed Chelsea.

Bale’s goal capped a dramatic turnaround in north London and means United will clinch their 20th top-flight crown by beating Aston Villa at Old Trafford on Monday.

Roberto Mancini’s defending champions are 13 points adrift of their cross-city rivals with five games left to play for both sides.

Yet for the majority of the match it seemed as though City would clinch a routine win and keep their slim hopes of retaining the title alive after Nasri steered in James Milner’s pullback.

Tottenham went into the match on the back of a 10-day break following their Europa League exit at Basel but they produced a lethargic display which only burst into life after Dempsey’s equaliser.

Up to that point, City’s assurance in possession, coupled with their willingness to drive forward on the counter-attack, served to frustrate the majority inside a subdued White Hart Lane.

But Dempsey, clearly on-side despite the protest of the City defence, pounced at the far post to convert Bale’s outside-of-the-boot cross.

Suddenly, the home crowd found their voices after Dempsey’s goal and the players found their belief as they upped the tempo in search of a winner.

It came four minutes later when substitute Defoe, who had only just entered the action as a replacement for the ineffective Emmanuel Adebayor, cut inside City skipper Vincent Kompany before unleashing a unstoppable angled drive past Hart.

Spurs looked a completely different team as their energy levels rose, in contrast to a City team who started to look like they were feeling the effects, both mentally and physically, of a hectic week.

The Blues enjoyed the high of reaching the FA Cup final by beating last-four opponents Chelsea at Wembley on Sunday, before they grinded out a 1-0 Premier League win against Wigan on Wednesday.

Spurs talisman Bale, who has missed two games with ankle ligament damage, was almost anonymous in the opening 75 minutes before he followed up his assist for the equaliser by scoring the third.

The Welshman latched on to a piercing throughball from another Spurs substitute, Tom Huddlestone, and managed to hold off Gael Clichy to coolly clip over the head of Hart.