Manchester City suffered their first defeat in the Premier League 2025-26 season, losing 2-0 to Tottenham Hotspur at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday. The Citizens started their Premier League campaign in style with a 4-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers away from home but faltered in their home encounter.
Manchester City started the game on a bright note with Omar Marmoush having three glorious opportunities. The first came in the 10th minute when Pedro Porro failed to clear James Trafford's goal-kick and Marmoush swooped in to capitalize on it. Despite drawing the goalkeeper towards him, his low shot rolled across the face of the goal.
Eight minutes later, Marmoush found some space outside the box and hammered a shot from distance, but Vicario was up to the challenge to parry the danger away. In the 28th minute, Erling Haaland drew a couple of defenders towards him and rolled a grounded pass to Marmoush inside the box. Vicario was quick to come out of the box and make himself big to block the Egyptian’s shot on target.
Tottenham were presented with two opportunities after that and made the most of them to take the game away from Manchester City. The first goal came after Richarlison dashed past John Stones and drilled a cross to Brennan Johnson in the center of the box, who slotted it home. The second was a goalkeeping error when Trafford gifted the ball to Spurs, and João Palhinha made no error in slamming it toward the net.
Rúben Dias felt that the team was slowly gaining control and was closer to scoring. The vibe was definitely in favor of Manchester City, further accentuated by the support of the home fans.
Speaking to TNT Sports after the match to share his reflections, Dias said, "They are obviously a team with many individual talents. They can be very dangerous. We started the game very well, but the first goal made us take a step back. We felt like we didn't react in the best way to stick to our game plan and keep doing what we were doing before. The second goal is unfortunate; it happens, but it cannot happen. After that, we chased and tried to do a lot of things better. Just as not everything was perfect in our first game (a 4-0 win versus Wolves), not everything is bad now, and we have to go back to work."
Rúben Dias recently signed a new contract with Manchester City that will keep him there until the summer of 2029.
"It speaks to our ambition. It says that we want to stay here, we want to win trophies, and that's the mentality of the club. Nothing has changed," Dias concluded.
Manchester City's next match is against Brighton and Hove Albion away from home on Sunday, August 31st.
