Haaland double puts Manchester City on brink of Premier League history

LONDON:

Erling Haaland scored twice to settle Manchester City’s nerves as the Premier League champions beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 to take a giant step towards a historic fourth straight English title on Tuesday.

The Norwegian forward headed home Kevin De Bruyne’s cross early in the second half to score City’s first league goal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

And he slotted home a late penalty to seal the three points for the visitors, minutes after substitute goalkeeper Stefan Ortega had made a superb save from Son Heung-min.

The win moves Pep Guardiola’s side two points clear of Arsenal at the top of the table after 37 games.

Victory at the Etihad against West Ham on Sunday will make them champions for a fourth consecutive season, regardless of the Gunners’ result against Everton.

No team in the history of the English top flight has ever won four titles in a row.

Defeat for Spurs also guarantees Aston Villa will finish fourth in the Champions League, joining City, Arsenal and Liverpool in Europe’s top competition next season.

“We took the chance in our hands for the last game,” Guardiola told the BBC. “Tennis players say ‘Serving to win Wimbledon, the last game, is the hardest.’

“It happened in our period against Aston Villa (in 2022). And many, many years ago it happened with Sergio Aguero (scoring) on ​​93 minutes 20 seconds against QPR. So it will become the typical game.”

Guardiola asked City fans for help to get them over the line.

“We know what we’re playing for,” he said. “The intensity is there, the opponent is so good. That’s why it’s hard, we know.

“Everybody comes on the field and makes noise. These games are harder, but you have to do it. We’ll have a day off, two days to prepare and then we’ll do our best.”

The build-up to the game in north London was dominated by a heated debate over whether the home fans wanted their own team to lose to leave City in the driver’s seat, with Arsenal the nearest challengers.

Spurs fans made their feelings towards their bitter local rivals clear in the opening minutes, with chants of “Get up if you hate Arsenal” echoing around the pitch.

Tottenham had the first look at goal, with City’s Anderson curling over a fierce Rodrigo Bedancourt effort before Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario saved Phil Foden’s close-range shot.

City, who went into the match unbeaten in 21 league games, were not quite at their best, while Spurs struggled to put the finishing touches to their attacking moves.

Moments after the restart, Vicario dived full-length to keep out a chipped De Bruyne effort.

But the visitors broke the deadlock in the 51st minute when Bernardo Silva found De Bruyne in the box and the Belgian crossed for Haaland to power home from outside the box.

Thousands of Spurs fans chanted ‘Are you watching Arsenal’ as the City faithful celebrated in their corner.

The game then fell apart as De Bruyne was raked in the Achilles by Pape Sarr before Ederson took a header to deny Cristian Romero and was replaced moments later by Ortega.

The German was immediately called into action, denying substitute Dejan Kulusevski from close range.

Time stopped when Son burst over with five minutes of normal time remaining, but Ortega saved with his feet when the South Korean looked certain to score.

Guardiola fell to the ground, holding his head in disbelief.

Instead, City were awarded a penalty when Pedro Porro brought down substitute Jeremy Docu and Haaland smashed home in the 91st minute to spark wild celebrations from the players in front of the City faithful, taking his league tally to 27 goals for the season.

Last year’s treble winners will prepare for Sunday’s final knowing they are just 90 minutes away from creating another piece of footballing history.