Ben Davies is the new Paolo Maldini: James Maddison pays tribute to 'Mr Reliable' for top performance in Tottenham's 4-0 win away at crisis club Man City

Spurs achieved a remarkable 4-0 victory at City on Saturday night, despite missing both starting centre-backs Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero. Radu Dragusin and Davies came in to replace them, and in an impressive display, limited City and Haaland to nothing more than half chances, leading to Maddison comparing the Welshman to AC Milan icon Paolo Maldini.

Many saw this game as a chance for Man City to end a four game losing streak. With the same centre-back pairing, Spurs lost 3-2 to Turkish side Galatasaray in the Europa League, where the two stand-ins struggled to keep up with Victor Osimhen.

However, this story was very different. In a heroic and composed display, Dragusin and Davies were on top of Haaland for almost the entire 90 minutes, and the big Norwegian could only watch difficult chances pass him by.

In an Instagram story published on Sunday, Maddison posted a photoshopped image of Maldini with Davies' head on, captioning: "You lot are too quick man. All joking aside what a shift yesterday from Mr Reliable."

With a powerhouse performance against City under his belt, Davies will likely start against Roma in midweek in the Europa League thanks to the enduring injuries to Romero and Van de Ven.