Man City vs Tottenham final score, highlights, result as Kulusevski snatches point for Spurs amid late drama

Dom Farrell

Man City vs Tottenham final score, highlights, result as Kulusevski snatches point for Spurs amid late drama image

ETIHAD STADIUM, MANCHESTER — Dejan Kulusevski snatched a last-gasp 3-3 draw for Tottenham as champions Manchester City again let a late lead slip in Sunday's Premier League clash.

Substitute Jack Grealish thought he'd given City three points when he converted Erling Haaland's low cross in the 81st minute but both men were involved in an angry stoppage-time flashpoint with the officials after Kulusevski brilliantly headed home via the underside of the crossbar from Brennan Johnson's left-wing delivery.

Son Heung-min scored a goal at either end to set the tone for a crazy contest. Pep Guardiola's men made all the running early on but from their third corner of the game in the sixth minute, Spurs broke rapidly and Son caught Jeremy Doku napping to fire past Ederson.

It was Son's eighth goal in a fixture he loves but those affections were tempered shortly afterwards when he turned Haaland's flick on from Julian Alvarez's right-wing free-kick beyond Guglielmo Vicario.

Man City vs Tottenham final score

 FulltimeGoalscorers
Man City3Son (og) '9, Foden '31, Grealish '81
Tottenham3Son '6, Lo Celso '69, Kulusevski '90

Lineups:

Man City (3-2-4-1, right to left): 31. Ederson (GK) — 2. Kyle Walker, 3. Ruben Dias, 24. Josko Gvardiol (6. Nathan Ake) — 16. Rodri, 25. Manuel Akanji — 47. Phil Foden (82. Rico Lewis), 19. Julian Alvarez (8. Mateo Kovacic), 20. Bernardo Silva, 11. Jeremy Doku (10. Jack Grealish) — 9. Erling Haaland.

Tottenham (4-2-3-1, right to left): 13. Guglielmo Vicario (GK) — 23. Pedro Porro, 12. Emerson Royal, 33. Ben Davies, 38. Destiny Udogie — 18. Giovani Lo Celso (4. Oliver Skipp), 8. Yves Bissouma (9. Richarlison) — 22. Brennan Johnson (63. Jamie Donley), 21. Dejan Kulusevski, 11. Bryan Gill (5. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg).  7. Son Heung-min.

MORE: What Manuel Akanji's surprising Man City career tells us about Jeremy Doku and Pep Guardiola

Haaland then should have put City ahead but dragged wide with the goal at his mercy after Alvarez and Bernardo Silva disturbed Spurs' latest haphazard attempt to play out from the back.

Doku and Alvarez each hit the post either side of the latter teeing up Phil Foden for his seventh goal of the season.

City were made to rue missed chance as the defensive vulnerabilities of recent weeks again reared their head and Giovani Lo Celso made it back-to-back goals with a fine 69th-minute finish from the edge of the box.

By the time Grealish and Kulusevski traded goals, City had conceded six leads over the course of their draws with Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham, a run that has seen them drop to third in the table — three points behind leaders Arsenal and one shy of Jurgen Klopp's men in second.

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Haaland furious as referee Hooper denies City late chance

Rodri ensured City emerged from a Spurs attack in injury time with a chance to break. Haaland received the ball near the centre circle with three Tottenham players around him. Emerson Royal fouled the big Norwegian, but the striker recovered and lifted a glorious ball over the top for Grealish. Surely the England international was about to bring the house down with the winner?

Not so, as referee Simon Hooper brought play back for a foul on Haaland. A free-kick 60 yards from goal is not quite a slam-dunk situation to compare to a £100 million footballer being clean through, so what was going on? The reason for the stoppage initially appeared to be the official on the far side deciding Grealish was offside, which, to the naked eye, looked a bold and incorrect call. Hooper also quite clearly indicated the advantage was being played before bringing play back for a free-kick after watching Haaland send the long ball to Grealish.

These are the days of long-delayed offside flags. Destiny Udogie romped about before eventually being penalised at the end of one second-half Spurs attack. And, studying the replay of the injury time incident shows the official did not flag and that Grealish was onside. So City were right, in that moment, to feel aggrieved. But if Haaland had shown his usual poise in front of goal, and if their defence was not so woefully susceptible to straight long balls or able to hold onto a lead inside the final 10 minutes of matches, then it wouldn't have been an issue at all.

Rodri and Grealish banned for Aston Villa match

Rodri's 34th-minute booking for crudely bringing down Pedro Porro was his fifth of the season and means he will miss City's trip to face high-flying Aston Villa on Wednesday. It will be the Champions League matchwinner's second suspension this season and, from Guardiola's point of view, the omens are fairly rotten.

The Spain midfielder was sent off following an altercation with Morgan Gibbs-White during City's 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest in September and they lost all three of the games he missed. For context, one of those was a Carabao Cup tie at Newcastle United for which he would almost certainly have been rested in any case, but City's midfield malfunctioned badly during back-to-back away defeats to Wolves and Arsenal.

Mateo Kovacic, in particular, struggled in those games. The Croatia international has just returned to fitness, Matheus Nunes remains sidelined and Kalvin Phillips continues not to be trusted by his manager. Defenders John Stones and Rico Lewis are comfortable moving into midfield positions, so maybe one or both of them will play. Either way, it's a challenging tactical puzzle Guardiola could have done without during the period of dwindling form.

Grealish will also miss the match against his old club after getting his fifth booking of the season for kicking the ball away following a foul.

Son sets unwanted record with a piece of Man City vs Spurs history

It looked for all the world that it was going to be another dazzling day at the Etihad Stadium office for Son. At the same end of the ground where his fabulous early double turned the 2019 Champions League quarterfinal on its head, he caught the European champions cold once more. But then came the careless touch from a swinging leg — very much the sort of thing that can happen when a forward with all of the enthusiasm but little of the capacity for defending finds themselves under the spotlight.

There were 137 seconds between Son's goal and his own goal, outstripping a Premier League record set by Jonny Evans for Manchester United against Newcastle in December 2012 by half a minute. The only other player to score at both ends during the opening 10 minutes of a Premier League game is former City midfielder Gareth Barry, who did so for Aston Villa in 1999.

He won't appreciate it now (perhaps he never will!) but Son has carved out a little piece of City vs Spurs folklore for himself. When the two sides met in the 1981 FA Cup final, Tommy Hutchison gave City the lead before heading Glenn Hoddle's free-kick into his own net. Spurs won the replay thanks to Ricky Villa's solo goal. If you squint hard enough, there's now a throughline from that historic Spurs triumph to modern-day hero Son.

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Man City vs Tottenham lineups, team news

Guardiola is still without long-term absentee Kevin De Bruyne. Fellow midfielders Mateo Kovacic is back among the substitutes but Matheus Nunes remains sidelined

John Stones remains on the bench as he builds fitness following his latest hamstring setback, with Jeremy Doku and Julian Alvarez recalled after coming off the bench to inspire the midweek 3-2 Champions League win over RB Leipzig.

Man City lineup (3-2-4-1, right to left): 31. Ederson (GK) — 2. Kyle Walker, 3. Ruben Dias, 24. Josko Gvardiol — 16. Rodri, 25. Manuel Akanji — 47. Phil Foden, 19. Julian Alvarez, 20. Bernardo Silva, 11. Jeremy Doku — 9. Erling Haaland.

Rodrigo Bentancur joined the growing injury list at Tottenham after being forced off with an ankle problem in the 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa last time out. James Maddison and Micky van de Ven remain among the players out, with Cristian Romero serving the final match of a ban. 

Emerson Royal was preferred at centre-back to Eric Dier last time out and keeps his place, with Yves Bissouma back from a suspension of his own to replace Bentancur. Richarlison is back among the substitutes.

Tottenham lineup (4-3-3, right to left): 13. Guglielmo Vicario (GK) — 23. Pedro Porro, 12. Emerson Royal, 33. Ben Davies, 38. Destiny Udogie — 18. Giovani Lo Celso, 8. Yves Bissouma — 11. Bryan Gill, 21. Dejan Kulusevski, 22. Brennan Johnson.  7. Son Heung-min.

Man City vs Tottenham live stream, TV channel

The Manchester vs. Tottenham match from the Premier League kicks off at 4:30 p.m. local time from the Etihad Stadium in Manchester.

Below are the corresponding times, TV channels, and live streams to watch the match in regions around the world

IN CANADA: Watch this match in 4k on Fubo Canada (on 4k devices)

 DateKickoff timeTVStreaming
USASun Dec. 311:30 a.m. ETPeacock
CanadaSun Dec. 311:30 a.m. ETFubo Canada
UKSun Dec. 34:30 p.m. GMTSky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Premier LeagueSky GO, Now TV
AustraliaMon Dec. 43:30 a.m. AEDTOptus Sport
IndiaSun Dec. 310:00 p.m. ISTStar Sports Select 1Hotstar VIP,
JioTV
Hong KongMon Dec. 412:30 a.m. HKTNow TV
MalaysiaMon Dec. 4 12:30 a.m. MYTAstro SuperSport 3Astro GO
SingaporeMon Dec. 412:30 a.m. SGT221 Hub Premier 1StarHub TV+
New ZealandMon Dec. 45:30 a.m. NZDTSky Sport NOW

Dom Farrell

Dom Farrell Photo

Dom is the senior content producer for Sporting News UK. He previously worked as fan brands editor for Manchester City at Reach Plc. Prior to that, he built more than a decade of experience in the sports journalism industry, primarily for the Stats Perform and Press Association news agencies. Dom has covered major football events on location, including the entirety of Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup in Paris and St Petersburg respectively, along with numerous high-profile Premier League, Champions League and England international matches. Cricket and boxing are his other major sporting passions and he has covered the likes of Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Wladimir Klitschko, Gennadiy Golovkin and Vasyl Lomachenko live from ringside.