Fixture - Man City vs Tottenham

Match report

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Edin Dzeko lived up to his super-sub billing by firing Manchester City to a 2-1 victory against Tottenham Hotspur.

The Bosnia striker struck three minutes from time to complete a second-half comeback from unbeaten City, who closed the gap on Barclays Premier League leaders Manchester United to two points.

It was the striker’s seventh goal of the season, six of which have come from the bench, after Sergio Aguero had cancelled out Steven Caulker’s first-half header. It also extended City’s unbeaten home Premier League record to 35 matches, and their present unbeaten league run to 16.

City’s recent vulnerability from set-pieces were exposed against Spurs midway through the first half. A free-kick delivered from the touchline by Tom Huddlestone found Caulker, who was able to power a header that City goalkeeper Joe Hart could not prevent going in.

Back after five matches out with a hamstring strain, David Silva had started brightly for City without finding a killer pass. For the visitors, Emmanuel Adebayor, starting his first game of the season against his former club, was an irritation luring Zabaleta into a tackle to get a booking.

The introduction of Maicon for his belated home debut offered an extra twist given it put him up against Gareth Bale, who terrorised the Brazilian during his Inter Milan days. But the switch to a three-man defence lifted City and they equalised after 65 minutes.

On a day when little seemed to be going right for the hosts, they profited from a couple of fortunate bounces, allowing Yaya Toure to get on the end of Silva’s pass, then Aguero to collect possession inside the Spurs box.

Caulker was turned by the Argentinian, who dispatched a precise shot into the far bottom corner.

Silva was denied by Spurs goalkeeper Brad Friedel’s feet before the veteran American thwarted Aguero. But Friedel was unable to do anything to prevent Dzeko, found by Silva’s neat dink over the top, to complete a memorable comeback.