What Ilkay Gundogan did to James Maddison to set Ange Postecoglou Tottenham masterplan in action

James Maddison enjoyed a dream 28th birthday on Saturday. Having gone into the international break with a 2-1 home defeat to Ipswich Town, a trip to the Etihad Stadium was hardly the ideal return to action for Tottenham.

City were going into the game off the back of four straight defeats themselves, but with Spurs missing their first choice defensive partnership of Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero, the Tottenham supporters would have been fearing the worst.

But after weathering an early Man City storm, Spurs took control and never looked back. Ange Postecoglou's side had 42% possession - not unheard of for an away team at the Etihad Stadium.

Spurs had nine shots, seven of which were on target, compared to City's 23 attempts, of which only five were on target. But while the stats favour City, as they often do, Spurs managed to keep City at arm's length and made the most of their impressive attacking plays.

It all started in the 13th minute when Dejan Kulusevski beat Josko Gvardiol to the ball on the right, cut inside and whipped a beautiful ball into the superb run of Maddison to volley past Ederson.

But it is what happened in the lead up to that goal that set the tone for Spurs and City.

With Kulusevski on the ball on the right, Maddison was in the middle of the park running to keep up with play. Alongside him was Ilkay Gundogan.

With Maddison aiming to get into the box to meet the Kulusevski cross, Gundogan can clearly be seen watching the Spurs midfielder. But rather than following him into the box, the German decided instead to point to the run of Maddison, leaving him to the City backline and John Stones in particular.

Stones, manning the box, keeping an eye on Dominic Solanke, could only watch as the ball drifted over his head and into Maddison's path to score. Gundogan could and perhaps should have tracked the run of the Spurs man and he may well have stopped the shot. that goal set the tone for the rest of the match, with Spurs pressing high, winning possession and counter-attacking quickly to secure a thumping 4-0 win.

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