Ake scores winner as holders finally win at Spurs with 102nd shot on target

A decent day for Pep Guardiola.

First his great rival Jurgen Klopp announced that he was heading for the hills.

Nathan Aké came into action late and won the match for Man CityCredit: Getty

The defender pounced on a mistake by Guglielmo Vicario and shot homeCredit: Reuters

The Spurs goalkeeper was shown a yellow card for his protests after the VAR ruled that the match should continueCredit: Reuters

Tottenham's and Ange Postecoglou will have another trophyless campaignCredit: AP

And then Manchester City scored for the first time ever at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as they continued their defense of the Treble by reaching the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Football's strangest statistic – that Guardiola's side had never scored a goal here in five previous visits, all of which ended in defeat – is finally over thanks to Nathan Aké's controversial 88th-minute winner.

Tottenham were furious and claimed a foul from Ruben Dias on goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario before Aké crossed the ball home.

But referee Paul Tierney and his VAR were probably right to allow the goal, continuing the recent trend against goalkeepers' over-protection.

The entertainment value of a match between two of the Premier League's five teams was risky until City staged a late rally and spied Spurs' goal in the final 20 minutes.

The last time these sides – usually two of the most exciting in English football – met was a 3-3 thriller at the Etihad.

But with Erling Haaland and Son Heung-Min missing and with Kevin De Bruyne and James Maddison on the bench until the final quarter, this was largely a night to forget.

Despite the outpouring of sadness on social media earlier in the day, we managed to start without a minute's silence over Klopp's impending departure.

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After suffering seven and a half hours without a goal here, City thought they had done it within four minutes.

Kyle Walker was released down the right to give Phil Foden the lead, whose shot was half saved by Vicario before Oscar Bobb put the loose ball over the line.

But the linesman raised his flag and after one of those mind-numbing VAR delays – which always seem longer here than anywhere else – it was determined that the nail on Bobb's big toe was ahead of Cristian Romero's knee.

Soon there was an even longer delay when a linesman's microphone malfunctioned and 62,000 people waited in the cold for a woman to stick wires in his vest.

Ah, the magic of the cup lived here, okay.

The biggest roar in the opening half-hour was for a Van de Ven tackle on Foden – an indication of City's early dominance and of the big Dutchman's wild popularity here.

City had one of those evenings where they happily hung around, playing football with lift music, without showing any manic intent to score.

The Spurs went long more often than usual. City sweeper keeper Stefan Ortega kept running out of his area and heading, instead of anything interesting happening.

City had three shots blocked in a row: Romero, Rodrigo Bentancur and Pedro Porro were all in bodyguard mode, taking bullets for Big Ange.

It was the first time since February that Spurs had failed to register a shot in the first half of a home game, although they did beat City 2-0 that day in one of those minimalist Joe Mourinho masterclasses.

It felt like we were waiting for De Bruyne and Maddison to be sent off.

Failing that, Glenn Hoddle and Ossie Ardiles were lurking in the tunnel for a half-time chat. Both would have livened things up if they had brought their boots.

Ossie did a crowd favorite for the 'boys from Tottingham', but then the football started again.

Alvarez squandered a glorious opportunity when Van de Ven allowed Bobb's cross to the Argentine, who shot wide of the back stick.

Timo Werner's afterburners had him sprinting away to make a pass for Brennan Johnson, but Ortega was off his line to nip.

After 65 minutes, Pep relented and sent De Bruyne along with his dribbler-in-chief Jeremy Doku, who promptly fell over in spectacular fashion.

Spurs were boosted by the return of James Maddison from injuryCredit: Rex

Pep Guardiola is still on course for another treble at CityCredit: Alamy

A Foden cross went off Van de Ven and almost looped, creating the feeling that City were starting to get serious.

Then came Maddison, for the first time in almost three months after an ankle ligament injury.

De Bruyne's first serious involvement came when he knocked the big Van de Ven to the ground. The Belgian may be a subtle performer of a ballplayer, but he is also a big unit.

Guardiola was shown a yellow card for sarcastically clapping at the referee, even though everyone in the room was tempted to sarcastically clap both groups of players.

Doku cut back, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg took an air kick and Bernardo Silva forced a great save from Vicario.

Within a minute Hojbjerg was at it again, ceding possession to Foden who set up De Bruyne's chance to score the match, but the Belgian inexplicably shot wide and it really started to feel like City were the victims of some strange curse here.

Then Doku charged forward and Vicario reached out to save the day.

Finally, three minutes from time, the breakthrough came when De Bruyne's corner found Ruben Dias and Vicario argy-bargy near the goal line, Dias held firm, put his head to the ball and Ake poked home.

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