At the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City defeated Tottenham in a decisive comeback to cut the deficit to Premier League leaders Arsenal to five points. When Spurs scored twice in the final minutes of the first half to leave Pep Guardiola's team facing a third straight defeat, it appeared like they were doing fierce north London rivals Arsenal a tremendous favour.
Following Ederson's sloppy clearance and Rodrigo Bentancur's robbery of Dejan Kulusevski to give Spurs the lead just before halftime, Emerson Royal headed in a second goal after the City goalkeeper could only parry Harry Kane's attempt. The majority of spectators at the Etihad Stadium were discouraged, but City, propelled by the great Riyad Mahrez, came out swinging after the break to completely change the game with three goals in 12 minutes.
In the 51st minute, after Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris failed to claim a cross from Mahrez, Julian Alvarez scored from close range, and two minutes later, Erling Haaland headed in from close range to tie the score for City. Rico Lewis' deflection of Ivan Perisic's shot onto the woodwork nearly gave Spurs the lead back, but Mahrez completed City's comeback by winning a challenge and beating Lloris at his near post. Mahrez capped off an outstanding individual performance by sprinting through the defence in stoppage time to loft City's fourth goal over the goalkeeper.