Man City record at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium: Do Pep Guardiola’s results at Spurs give hope for Arsenal’s title?

Manchester City had just won their third consecutive Premier League title and fifth in the last six seasons.

A treble was expected, and Manchester United and Inter Milan were ultimately defeated at Wembley and the Ataturk Olympic Stadium to seal a place in history for Pep Guardiola and his players.

In an interview with Sky Sports at the end of May 2023, Guardiola was asked what the next challenge could be after a campaign in which his team won almost everything.

“Scoring a goal against Spurs away from home,” he joked. “I’m staying because I want to beat the Spurs.”

If City are to win a record fourth consecutive Premier League title, it looks like they will have to do just that.

The current champions enter the final week of the season one point behind leaders Arsenal, but with one game less to play at Tottenham. If they win that, they will be within striking distance of glory heading into the final day’s clash against West Ham at the Etihad Stadium; If they lose, Arsenal will hope to become English champions for the first time in 20 years.

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium opened in April 2019, with Spurs hosting City for the first time at their new home a week later. During a period in which Guardiola’s men have been a dominant force, scoring goals galore and hoarding trophies, his record at this modern north London stadium has been absolutely abysmal.

Manchester City record at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium

Man City have only won once at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in six attempts in all competitions.

In their first five visits, City lost five times to four different Spurs managers and failed to even score a goal, missing a couple of penalties along the way. On 26 January, Nathan Ake scored a late goal to secure a 1–0 victory in the fourth round of the FA Cup. This week we will see if the curse has truly been broken or not.

Tottenham 1-0 Man City (Champions League: April 9, 2019)

Six days after the opening match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs hosted their Premier League counterparts for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final. In fact, City had a golden opportunity to become the first visiting team to score on the new ground after 12 minutes, but Hugo Lloris got it right and saved Sergio Agüero’s penalty.

A tense encounter unfolded and Guardiola kept Kevin De Bruyne and Leroy Sané on the bench until the 89th minute as he juggled the demands of fighting for trophies on four fronts. Eleven minutes before that, Son Heung-min caught Fabian Delph and fired past Ederson to seal the victory of the night. It would be the only game City lost in their final 23 games of the campaign, as they won a domestic treble but were knocked out of the Champions League on away goals after a remarkable 4-3 win over Spurs in the return crash the following week.

Tottenham 2-0 Man City (Premier League: February 2, 2020)

Aguero won a penalty in the first half, drawing a foul from Serge Aurier, but passed the responsibility to Ilkay Gundogan following his mishap in the same end 10 months earlier. The result was the same, with Lloris ping to his left to repel the German midfielder’s attempt.

In what would become a common theme of these fixtures, City proceeded to dominate possession and could not find a way through. Oleksandr Zinchenko then brought down Harry Winks with an hour played to earn his second booking and Spurs took the lead soon after thanks to a fabulous volley from debutant Steven Bergwijn. Picking up another repeated narrative thread, Son hit the bottom corner to seal the points.

Tottenham 2-0 Man City (Premier League: November 21, 2020)

Mourinho scored back-to-back wins over his old Clasico rival, and Son was on target once again to give Tottenham an early lead. City thought they had that elusive goal when Aymeric Laporte beat Lloris after Gabriel Jesús fell, although replays showed the Brazilian managed to make the assist possible.

Giovani Lo Celso capped a counterattack orchestrated by Harry Kane to put Spurs top of the table after nine games, while City languished in 12th place after playing one less. Guardiola’s team managed to finish the behind-closed-doors season of English football as champions, beating Spurs a few days after Mourinho’s sacking in the Carabao Cup final, with Laporte scoring the goal in a 1-0 victory.

Tottenham 1-0 Man City (Premier League: August 15, 2021)

It’s sometimes easy to forget that Nuno Espirito Santo’s 17 appearances at Spurs happened, but he started in excellent fashion with a victory over the Premier League champions. Guardiola made a full debut with £100m man Jack Grealish, with a slightly mixed feeling in his line-up following his European Championship commitments.

Once again City were left to rue missed opportunities after dominating possession. Once again, Son fired a shot past Ederson. Rinse and repeat.

Tottenham 1-0 Man City (Premier League: February 5, 2023)

Antonio Conte’s most notable success against City came amid a Kane masterclass at the Etihad Stadium in February 2022, when the England captain responded to Riyad Mahrez’s stoppage-time equalizer from the penalty spot with a winning goal even later to seal a 3-2 win. Spurs were also 2-0 up in the corresponding match in 2022/23 before Mahrez inspired a convincing 4-2 victory for the hosts.

All of that counted for nothing as a discolored City side returned to normality in a match in which there was a peculiar sense of inevitability after Kane opened the scoring in the 15th minute. Even Erling Haaland, on his way to a record-breaking season in the Premier League, he couldn’t break the spell. The only unusual thing was that Son did not score before being substituted in the 84th minute. Cristian Romero was sent off but Guardiola’s team ran out of time

Tottenham 0-1 Man City (FA Cup: January 26, 2024)

When Oscar Bobb had an early goal disallowed for a fine offside verdict, it looked like City’s Tottenham curse could be about to stay strong. However, Ange Postecoglou’s more expansive approach compared to his immediate predecessors on the Spurs bench created the type of competition that Guardiola’s team enjoys, and they had the advantage for long periods.

De Bruyne wasted a glorious chance as the minutes ticked away but, from a corner by the Belgian playmaker in the 88th minute, Ake was on the spot to capitalize as Ruben Dias reached the near post ahead of the Spurs goalkeeper, Guglielmo Vicario.