Haaland, whose absence was sorely felt in the defeats to Real Madrid and Liverpool, took just 12 minutes to return to the scoresheet. His early goal was enough for City to gain at least some revenge for their two defeats at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur this season and move back into the Premier League top four.
This may not have been the most fluent performance by Guardiola’s side, even if their margin of victory could have doubled had an added time effort by Haaland not been contentiously ruled out for offside. Dominant in the first half when they should have had more to show for their efforts, City were forced to defend determinedly to fend off a Tottenham response in the second period and survived a last minute chance that fell to Pape Matar Sarr. This win, though, could turn out to be extremely significant at the end of the season.
Jeremy Doku’s trickery on the left had provided some of City’s most threatening moments against Liverpool last Sunday although the winger’s final ball too often has a habit of letting his good work down. Initially it looked as though it might be a case of more of the same as the Belgium international twice found himself in good positions before misplacing his pass.
It turned out, however, that they were sighters with Doku getting it right when he set up Haaland for the 12th minute opening goal. City opened up Tottenham when they moved the ball quickly across the pitch, exposing the gaps between the Spurs defenders before Doku’s deflected pass inside found Haaland who swept home for his 20th league goal of the season.
Ange Postecoglou’s side had paid the price for their lack of discipline and organisation and there were few signs of them addressing their flaws during the rest of a first half that was dominated by an increasingly confident City.
Doku continued to be the visitors’ most effective outlet, constantly tormenting Porro, while on the other flank Savinho gave Spurs left-back Destiny Udogie a similarly troublesome time. And had City showed more composure in front of goal, the game would have been effectively over inside 30 minutes.
Savinho was guilty of missing a good chance to add the second when Doku again found himself in lots of space after another cross-field move. The Belgian curled in an accurate low cross towards his teammate who managed to drill his first time shot into the ground, sending it looping over the bar. Then Haaland was uncharacteristically wasteful when he placed a close range shot too close to keeper Guglielmo Vicario who saved well with his feet.
Spurs had appeared disjointed and lacked coherence throughout the opening half and were grateful to reach half time trailing by just one goal. They could draw some belief from Kevin Danso’s header that drew a save from City keeper immediately before the break but there were few signs they were capable of disrupting Guardiola’s side.
A Doku chance shortly after the restart suggested the momentum of the game would remain unchanged but Spurs finally began to show signs they could hurt the visitors and grew in confidence after Pedro Porro’s excellent low cross was almost turned home by Wilson Odobert.
That triggered a period of sustained pressure from Postecoglou’s side and Danso quickly drew another save from Ederson from a free-kick before the City keeper was again forced to react to keep out Rodrigo Bentacur’s header.
Postecoglou attempted to build on his side’s second half revival by introducing Heung-min Son, Dejan Kulusevski and Djed Spence, left out of the starting line-up after feeling the effects of the recent schedule, but they were unable to force an equaliser.
SPURS (4-3-3): Vicario 6; Porro 7, Danso 6, Gray 8, Udogie 6 (Spence 66, 6); Bergvall 7, Bentancur 6 (Sarr 66, 6), Maddison 7 (Werner 82, 6); Johnson 6, Tel 6 (Kulusevksi 66, 6) , Odobert 6 (Son 66, 6).
MANCHESTER CITY (4-2-3-1): Ederson 6; Nunes 6, Khusanov 6, Dias 6, Gvardiol 6; Gonzalez 6 (Silva 73, 6), Kovacic 7 (Gundogan 90, 6); Savinho 7 (McAtee 90, 6), Marmoush 6 (Foden 73, 6), Doku 8 (Grealish 90, 6); Haaland 6.
Referee: Jarrad Gillett 6