Pep Guardiola's bogey team! Why Man City struggle so much against Tottenham

The Tottenham Hotspur stadium wowed onlookers when it opened in April 2019 and it is widely regarded as the best club ground in England, if not Europe. Guardiola must hate the sight of the place, however, as his side have lost all five matches they have played there.

They were the second team to play there when they took on Spurs in the Champions League quarter-final first leg, losing 1-0 in a game when luck deserted them. Sergio Aguero squandered an early penalty and then Son Heung-min struck the only goal after Fabian Delph had stood still after wrongly alleging that the ball had gone out of play.

That result proved crucial to Spurs knocking City out of the competition on away goals following an enthralling 4-3 win for Guardiola's side in the second leg in Manchester. Spurs were the victors again in City's first league visit to the stadium in February 2020, with Ilkay Gundogan missing a penalty in a 2-0 win for Spurs as Mourinho got one over his old foe.

City's terrible record in N17 continued when no supporters were allowed in the stadium due to coronavirus restrictions in November 2020, with Mourinho's side winning 2-0. The Portuguese had been replaced by compatriot Nuno Espirito Santo by the time of City's next visit to Tottenham on the opening day of the 2021-22 season and it was another day to forget for the visitors, Son scoring again in a 1-0 win for Spurs. It was one of just five league matches Spurs won under Espirito Santo, who was sacked in November.

Even during City's incredible treble-winning campaign last year, they still couldn't win away to Tottenham, who saw out a 1-0 victory in February 2023 thanks to an early Harry Kane goal. That was when Conte was absent from the dugout after needing surgery to treat gallbladder stones, with his assistant Stellini taking charge for the game and guiding Spurs to a fifth consecutive home win over City.

Stellini had a hapless time as Spurs' interim manager and was sacked just a month after succeeding Conte following a 6-1 defeat by Newcastle. But the fact he was able to beat City shows the hold Tottenham seem to have over Guardiola's side. The defeat seemed to awaken something in City, however, as they did not lose another match until wrapping up the Premier League title in May.

The fact that a team as strong as City have lost five consecutive visits to Tottenham is remarkable in itself, but it is not the most damning aspect of their record in the blue and white half of north London. Guardiola's side have not managed to score a single goal in more than 450 minutes at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Guardiola is well aware of this statistical anomaly and brought it up when asked at the start of this season what else he had to achieve in England after guiding City to the treble. "Score a goal against Spurs away," he said. "It’s why I stay: I want to beat Spurs away.”

Ahead of Friday's trip to London, the coach defended his team's performances in all their previous visits. "The feeling is most of the time we were exceptional. Exceptional is not the right word because we could not win but we played really good," he said.

"You see how we played and the stats, I don’t believe much in the stats but the way we behave and the way we play was good. But the reality is that, no goals and six defeats. They are much better than us. That is the reality, how tough it is for us."

Curiously, the only times City have beaten Tottenham away during Guardiola's time in charge were at Wembley Stadium, where Spurs were forced to play between 2017 and 2019 while their new ground was being built. Wembley holds special memories for Guardiola as he won the European Cup there as a player with Barcelona in 1992 and as a coach in 2011. City steamrolled Spurs 3-1 at the iconic stadium in 2018 as they swept to the title while the following campaign a Riyad Mahrez goal was enough to secure a narrow 1-0 victory.

They also beat them in the 2021 Carabao Cup final in an empty Wembley. City's problems began when Tottenham moved into their new ground, although Guardiola's side had also struggled at Spurs' traditional home, White Hart Lane. In fact, the now demolished stadium was the scene of Guardiola's first ever defeat in the Premier League.

City had laid down a marker in the coach's debut season by winning their opening six games, scoring 18 goals in the process. But the dream start was halted by Tottenham, who were enjoying one of their finest spells of form under Mauricio Pochettino. Aleksandar Kolorov scored a freak own goal to put City on the backfoot in the ninth minute and then Dele Alli clinched a 2-0 win. That match is clearly etched into Guardiola's memory as he brought it up on Thursday, also taking the opportunity to praise Spurs' rise over the last decade.

"It happened at White Hart Lane too, not just this stadium. They’re exceptional, since Pochettino was manager, all the other managers too," he said. "They have exceptional players - always you think why are they not able to be there in the last stages, in the Champions League, although they got to the final a few years ago. It’s a fantastic, historical club, the players are really good, when I analyse the performance, what we create, concede, it’s the same as what happened at home games here. We played good - but were not able to win."

City have a much better record against Spurs at the Etihad Stadium, winning five out of nine matches at their home. And yet there is still a sense of them being cursed by rotten luck and the tightest of margins when they have played them.

Their agonising Champions League elimination after the 4-3 win in 2019 ranks highest of all the disappointments, especially because they felt a deep sense of injustice. Spurs scored one of their goals with the help of Fernando Llorente's arm, which was not ruled out by VAR. Raheem Sterling then thought he had sent City through in stoppage time, only for the goal to be ruled out by VAR for offside.

And just four months later, history repeated itself in a 2-2 draw in east Manchester. Gabriel Jesus put the ball in the net in added time to spark huge celebrations but they were punctured by another VAR review, which chalked the goal off as the ball had brushed against Aymeric Laporte's arm in the build-up.

The goal would have been allowed the previous season but was deemed invalid due to new handball rules. Had those rules been introduced a year earlier, Llorente's crucial goal in the Champions League tie would have been disallowed.

Spurs piled more pain on City in February 2022, when Harry Kane scored a hat-trick in an epic 3-2 win in what was his first game against Guardiola's side since failing to force through a move to the Blues the previous summer. City had 21 shots that day compared to Tottenham's six.

Spurs were also economical with their shots in their thrilling 3-3 draw at City this season, scoring with three of their four efforts on target. City also felt wronged again by the officials as referee Simon Hooper awarded them a foul rather than playing advantage when Jack Grealish was about to burst towards goal. The decision sparked the mother of all outbursts from Erling Haaland and the Norwegian also vented his fury on social media, writing "WTF".

Can City finally break their curse away to Tottenham on Friday? There are several reasons to believe so. The coaching staff and players should be refreshed after a warm-weather training camp in Abu Dhabi, while Kevin De Bruyne is set to start his first match since August after his sensational cameo off the bench against Newcastle. John Stones is also due to return after his ankle injury. City will still be without Haaland but they have coped pretty well with the Norwegian's absence, winning eight out of nine matches.

Arguably more crucial than the return of De Bruyne and Stones is the fact Son is still at the Asian Cup. The South Korean is Spurs' top scorer with 12 goals plus five assists and more often than not he has been the architect of City's downfall. He has scored eight goals in 16 matches against Guardiola, including three in that epic Champions League tie and the opening strike in the 3-3 epic last month.

City will also be roared on by more than 9,000 fans, by far the biggest following they will have enjoyed at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. And Guardiola was quietly optimistic about his side's chances of finally overcoming their hoodoo.

"There is always a new opportunity to break it," he added. "Now it’s the FA Cup and it’s one game and we have to score - otherwise we will not go through in this competition. It’s happened many times but hopefully we can break it."