Pep Guardiola gives Jose Mourinho a brutal reminder of the growing gap between Man City and Tottenham

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Manchester City will surely be crowned Premier League champions again. But what of Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham?

Three goals separated the teams on the night. And the gap in the table between two of football’s great rivals is now a cavernous 17 points.

To think Mourinho was being touted to mount a credible title challenge this season. Instead, he will almost certainly be left to watch on as his old adversary Guardiola reasserts his dominance of the English game.

With each passing year, the rivalry between these managerial greats diminishes. In truth, it has ceased to be a meaningful contest as Guardiola has led City to new heights, while Mourinho desperately scraps to get back into that conversation at the top of the game.

This was a brutal reminder of just how far off he and Tottenham are.

While he could point to a first-half penalty and an error from Hugo Lloris as the pivotal moments that put City into an unassailable lead inside 50 minutes, Spurs’ hopes of taking anything from the Etihad always relied on a moment of magic from Harry Kane and a near-perfect defensive showing.

Even after Kane hit the bar with the score goalless, it is a lot to ask at this level. Especially against a team as dominant as City are right now.

It worked back in November, when Guardiola’s team last lost a game in any competition. But it is too much to sustain over an entire campaign.

To be fair to Mourinho, he always claimed Spurs were ponies in the race for the title. But as they led the table after that 2-0 win against City, it was hard not to dismiss his comments as a classic case of mind games from the Special One.

In this congested season, it was felt he might be the one to plot and scheme his way through these unprecedented times. That he might be the one to take advantage as Liverpool and City were drawn back to the pack after three years of supremacy.

Not so – and the undoubted gulf in class was emphatically underlined with this 3-0 win, courtesy of Rodri’s spot kick and two second half goals from Ilkay Gundogan.

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Liverpool’s defeat to Leicester earlier in the day as good as confirmed their title defence is over – and it is hard to see the Foxes or Manchester United being able to keep up with the pace City are setting.

As for Spurs, they can look forward to another meeting with Guardiola in the Carabao Cup final, which now looks like their only hope of silverware this season after being sent crashing out of the FA Cup by Everton in midweek.

Good luck with that.

A tale of two keepers

Hugo Lloris should have done better with Gundogan’s first goal five minutes after the break, which was aimed straight at him.

In that moment, Tottenham’s fight ended.

But he might also look to Rodri’s first-half penalty with regret.

He got a good hand to the spot kick, but wasn’t strong enough to push it away.

Meanwhile, this was a day when Ederson underlined his class and unique qualities.

He was desperate to take City’s penalty – and even after having to hand over duties to Rodri, he was seen sending instructions up to the midfielder before he stepped up to put the home side in front.

Then, in the second half, it was his phenomenal 80-yard through ball that set up Gundogan’s second.

Which Allison enduring a nightmare couple of weeks, can he now be considered the Premier League’s No1 keeper?

A week to forget

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg will be happy to see the end of this trip – and say goodbye to the north west.

Twice in two games he was penalised for clumsy challenges in the box. First against Everton in Spurs’ FA Cup exit on Wednesday – and then, here, against City when he collided with Gundogan in the first half.

Neither incident could be described as cynical or even intentional, but both were clear spot-kicks – even if Spurs’ bench protested the latest decision.

Hojbjerg has been outstanding this season, but to be caught out in similar incidents twice in quick succession suggests it’s an area of his game he needs to work on.

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