India, Feb. 2 -- For half of Sunday's Premier League match at Tottenham Hotspur, it looked like the 10th anniversary of Manchester City announcing Pep Guardiola as manager would be an affair to remember. Rayan Cherki and Antoine Semenyo had scored against a team who had won only 10 points at home and were without 11 regulars because of injury. Arsenal were feeling the heat and it would have been an apt acknowledgement of the man instrumental in Manchester City's journey from noisy neighbours to serial winners had the scoreline stayed that way.

But, football, bloody hell!. Alex Ferguson's comment after the 1999 Champions League final seemed an apt way to describe how the second half unfolded. City's tendency to concede after half-time has...