Man City show new aggressive side vs Tottenham to support Ruben Dias comment

Tottenham could be forgiven for thinking this was going to be another one of those days when they had a strangely serene day against the champions.

Far too often for Manchester City's liking in recent years, they have gone into games against Spurs as favourites — only to concede and find themselves unable to find a way back into the game.

Pep Guardiola's side had collected 43 points out of 45 ahead of Saturday's fixture and Tottenham had lost their last three, so of course City nemesis Son Heung-min combined with Harry Kane, before finding Dejan Kulusevski to score the opening goal inside four minutes.

Having seen Norwich take the lead at Anfield earlier in the day before slumping to their expected defeat, Blues of a certain persuasion were thinking along the same lines as the giddiest of North Londoners.

Instead, City players reacted with a hot-headed fury that is rarely seen in a team that controls the overwhelming majority of their matches.

Invoking Ruben Dias's on-brand claim this week that every player on the pitch has the responsibility to be a captain, the Blues played as if it was an insult to be behind.

Even when the equaliser came, the City line-up ran back to their own half and Rodri screamed at Harry Kane for taking longer than the Spaniard wanted to restart play.

The crowd, up for it from the first whistle anyway, absolutely fed off the energy of the players to set the Etihad crackling as Spurs players increasingly took to playing dead to try and survive the storm that came their way.

Ultimately, City could have done with cooler heads to concentrate their fury.

Just one of 11 first-half shots on goal was on target and many a pass was misplaced as the home team struggled to marry their aggression with