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Nuno's verdict on City

Sun 15 August 2021, 20:15|Tottenham Hotspur

Nuno Espirito Santo told us pre-match that he wanted to see the players ‘go beyond limits’. They did exactly that on an opening day to remember against champions Manchester City at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

To a man, we stood up to the challenge, won our 50-50s, stood firm defensively and broke dangerously, and it was from one of those breaks that Heung-Min Son struck again against City to send 58,262 fans into delirium as they packed out the stadium for the first time since March, 2020.

This time, on 55 minutes, Lucas Moura flicked a clever pass into the path of Steven Bergwijn and we were away. Stevie went right to Sonny, who cut inside Nathan Ake and curled a beauty into the bottom corner. That’s seven goals for the South Korean against City as we made it four out of four against Pep Guardiola’s men at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - Sonny’s scored in all four.

Report and reaction

The boys go beyond... the fight, the discipline, the way they commit themselves was very good
Nuno Espirito Santo

“That was the idea - going beyond your limits, and I think everybody saw this today,” said Nuno, naturally delighted after such a notable victory in his first official game in charge. “The boys go beyond... the fight, the discipline, the way they commit themselves was very good. This is what we have to do every day of our lives.”

Once again, we finished strongly, one of the key takeaways from pre-season. Nuno added: “I think we can say that we have finished the matches really strong, and that is credit to the players, because they have to prepare themselves to really go all the game, and in the end to be stronger to win the small duels that make all the difference requires a lot of discipline.”

Football moves on quickly though, and you sense that Nuno’s thoughts will be along the lines of, 'okay, that’s done, now we move on'.

He said: “Yes, they know. We are starting, it’s the beginning, the first official game of the season, and we have to recover. Now we go to Portugal (Pacos de Ferreira in the Europa Conference League on Thursday evening), and we think about the next one. Now, what’s important is tomorrow, the commitment of recovering well and preparing for the next game.”