Manchester City can walk on water these days – not even the Hackney Marshes pitch could stop them
Pep Guardiola's men moved back to the top of the Premier League with a 1-0 win over Spurs on a battered Wembley turf
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CHAMPIONS have always had to battle their way from summer through to the following spring, through hell and high water, to clinch the title.
They do not normally have to overcome a playing surface which is a mix between Hackney Marshes and Chicago's Soldier Field.
But Manchester City took this latest obstacle in their imperious stride last night as they returned to the top of the Premier League, despite a Wembley pitch ravaged by three successive weekends of NFL action.
While Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham are no footballing neanderthals themselves, it looked like a clear advantage for them to face a Pep Guardiola team on a pitch so ill-suited to passing football.
Yet Saint Pep and his boys can pretty much walk on water these days and so they negated this ploughed field with a long-ball winner.
Riyad Mahrez had the ball in the Tottenham endzone within six minutes.
Perhaps Spurs chairman Daniel Levy ought to forked out for one of those tight ends this summer.
The tardy builders who have delayed the move to the new White Hart Lane have long since been a cause for stinging embarrassment.
Can they fix it? Not until the New Year at least.
For Tottenham, the hard hats. For City, the crown.
If Guardiola’s men are to become the first team in a decade to retain the Premier League title - and Liverpool and Chelsea will have plenty to say about that - then they will overcome few stranger challenges than this.
Sport has rarely been played on such an alien surface since astronauts went golfing on the moon.
But City are no mere one-dimensional purists.
They are a team for all seasons, over land, sea and anything surface in between.
Of course this wasn’t a vintage City display - even Lionel Messi would have struggled here last night, having graced the place so wonderfully last month when this pitch had been stained by the staging of an Anthony Joshua fight without having been seriously ruined.
But they did what they had to do and were well worth an eighth victory in ten unbeaten league games.
Perhaps both managers took a look at the patchwork pitch before they decided to leave flair players such as Kevin De Bruyne, Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli on the bench until late on.
What was once Wembley’s hallowed turf is now rented out more regularly than a community-centre badminton court.
Yet Spurs will not move into their new home until January at the earliest - and frankly if chief executive Richard Scudamore were not demob-happy, the Premier League would surely be demanding they remain here for the rest of the season for the sake of balance and integrity.
Still, Tottenham v City at Wembley is an iconic fixture - conjuring up images of 1981; of Ossie’s Dream, Ricky’s goal and all that.
So, naturally, City dressed up in a bizarre purple get-up with an orange sash straight out of the Northern Ireland marching season.
Still while they might not have looked like City, they certainly started off playing like the champions they are.
And despite their reputation for the short, silky stuff, an effective long ball from Ederson is often part of the Guardiola playbook.
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The Brazilian punted upfield and Kieran Trippier misjudged his header allowing Raheem Sterling to outpace him and cut back for Mahrez to rifle home.
Harry Kane shot on to the roof of the net from range as Spurs threatened an equaliser.
City were shaky at times, Benjamin Mendy looking particularly uncomfortable trying to play through the linebackers’ stud marks.
Mahrez, though, almost added a second when he was teed up by David Silva and forced Hugo Lloris into a smart save at his near post.
But when Erik Lamela sent Kane clean through, he would doubtless have blamed the pitch for a heavy first touch which allowed Ederson to race out and tackle him.
There was often an end-to-end feel about this with both teams keen to bypass traditional midfield channels.
But City began the second half the brighter side.
They might have scored from a dangerous Bernardo Silva centre but David Silva could not get a shot away and then Sterling had an effort blocked, to the visible frustration of Guardiola.
Sergio Aguero twice tested Lloris - one forcing a very decent diving stop - and Lamela missed a late sitter after being sent through by sub Alli.
But with a Real Madrid managerial vacancy once more sending tremors through the Spurs boardroom, this was another night when you wondered how much further Pochettino - or any leading coach - can take Spurs.
They are not in the same class as City, as Pochettino has readily admitted.
More than four years of over-achievement by the Argentine have not been sufficiently rewarded by a club which cannot yet provide a functioning stadium nor significant transfer funds.
At 46, Pochettino must be scared and thinking he ain’t that young anymore - to paraphrase Bruce Springsteen, who might have fancied a half-time Superbowl-style gig out there last night.
At some point Pochettino will want to head elsewhere and win a trophy.
For Guardiola, there is no such concern. However shabby the stage.
