Jose Mourinho showed he IS the man to guide Tottenham to silverware by masterminding a defeat of Man City on Sunday.
Spurs were dominated at White Hart Lane by Pep Guardiola’s reigning champions, having just 33 per cent possession and managing only three shots to the visitors’ 18.
But Steven Bergwijn scored a fine debut goal to open the scoring for the north Londoners, with Heung-min Son adding a second eight minutes later to stun City.
Bergwijn’s opener came moments after the visitors were reduced to ten men with the dismissal of Oleksandr Zinchenko, with City also missing a penalty and hitting the woodwork as they failed to find a way past Hugo Lloris in the Tottenham goal.
It was a classic Mourinho victory.
Reminiscent of Chelsea’s famous 2-0 defeat of Liverpool at Anfield in 2014 – the ‘Gerrard slip’ match – Jose’s side gave up the ball and defended resolutely to deny their opponents an opening goal.
And after weathering the storm, they struck twice in quick succession to down Guardiola’s dominant side.
The win proved Mourinho retains his magic touch, even if he has not been able to show it off so much over the past few years.
And Jamie O’Hara, the former Tottenham player, says Sunday’s result showed that Jose still has the ability to guide Spurs to silverware.
“The Spurs game yesterday was brilliant,” said O’Hara on Monday’s Sports Breakfast. “I loved it.
“For me, it was classic Mourinho. That is what we’ve brought Mourinho in for, to get those results against teams like Man City. You know, up against it, backs against the wall, they had chances…
“Then to go and win the game 2-0…
“It shows what Tottenham are about, they were resilient and resolute.
“To see him on the sidelines with the passion and the sort of ‘Mourinho Moments’ was brilliant.
“If you look at what Tottenham want to do, they want to win a trophy.
LIVE on talkSPORT
Check out all the LIVE commentaries coming up on talkSPORT, below…
- Liverpool vs Shrewsbury (Tuesday, 7:45pm) – talkSPORT
- Oxford vs Newcastle (Tuesday, 8:05pm) – talkSPORT 2
- Tottenham vs Southampton (Wednesday, 7:45pm) – talkSPORT
- Bristol City vs Birmingham (Friday, 7:45pm) – talkSPORT 2
- Wigan vs Preston (Saturday, 12pm) – talkSPORT 2
- Everton vs Crystal Palace (Saturday, 12:30pm) – talkSPORT
- Sunderland vs Ipswich (Saturday, 3pm) – talkSPORT 2
- Brighton vs Watford (Saturday, 5:30pm) – talkSPORT
- Nottingham Forest vs Leeds (Saturday, 5:30pm) – talkSPORT 2
“And if you look at those moments, in the Champions League, Mourinho is the guy who will set up a team to get results in big games.
“Yeah, they might struggle against a Norwich or a Watford, because those are the games they need to dominate and are expected to win.
“But the games where you don’t expect them to get a result and they have to be resolute and resilient, that is where Mourinho comes into his element.
“He is the guy who can do things like that, and you think, ‘yeah, we can win a trophy with this manager’.”
Watch a clip of Jamie O’Hara on talkSPORT, above…
