As Tottenham Hotspur failed to raise their game for Manchester City\u2019s visit to north London, Gary Neville didn\u2019t hold back in his assessment of both the performance and the atmosphere, tearing into Thomas Frank\u2019s underwhelming side.<\/p>\n
Neville criticised the mood inside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, branding it \u201cflat as a pancake\u201d and comparing the lack of intensity to a \u201ccharity game.\u201d Spurs were lifeless in the first half and paid the price as goals from Rayan Cherki and Antoine Semenyo put Pep Guardiola\u2019s team firmly in control.<\/p>\n
As Tottenham collapsed limply against City, Neville repeatedly highlighted the sterile feel inside the \u00a31 billion stadium, suggesting it resembled an exhibition match rather than a Premier League showdown. He contrasted the occasion with Chelsea\u2019s dramatic 3-2 win over West Ham the previous night, saying:
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit different than the game last night, Chelsea vs West Ham. This feels a bit like Soccer Aid \u2014 bring Robbie Williams and Harry Styles on at half-time and lift the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n
The atmosphere deteriorated further after the break, with large numbers of fans failing to return to their seats for the second half. Huge sections of the stadium were visibly empty moments after the restart, prompting Neville to comment:
\n\u201cThere was a planned walkout at 75 minutes, but unless they\u2019re all having a couple of drinks \u2014 and I wouldn\u2019t blame them \u2014 a lot haven\u2019t come back out. It\u2019s empty at the top as well. It\u2019s eerie times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tottenham were finally jolted into life when Dominic Solanke pulled a goal back, continuing his recent scoring run after netting against Frankfurt. The former Bournemouth striker lifted the ball over Gianluigi Donnarumma before later stunning the stadium with a brilliant second, flicking in a clever finish following relentless pressure from Conor Gallagher and a superb cross.<\/p>\n
The goals offered a rare spark for Spurs, who have endured a difficult domestic run. Frank was already dealing with a depleted squad before kick-off, with 11 first-team players unavailable.<\/p>\n
James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, Mohammed Kudus, Pedro Porro, Micky van de Ven, Lucas Bergvall, Ben Davies, Rodrigo Bentancur, Richarlison, Djed Spence and Kevin Danso all missed the clash. Addressing the injury situation, Frank admitted:
\n\u201cWe\u2019re hit pretty hard, but it\u2019s part of the game. We have to find solutions and others need to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that Danso had suffered an unfortunate toe injury after landing on an opponent\u2019s foot and was awaiting specialist assessment, while Spence was sidelined with a minor calf issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As Tottenham Hotspur failed to raise their game for Manchester City\u2019s visit to north London, Gary Neville didn\u2019t hold back in his assessment of both the performance and the atmosphere, tearing into Thomas Frank\u2019s underwhelming side. Neville criticised the mood inside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, branding it \u201cflat as a pancake\u201d and comparing the lack …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":58069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_1640.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58302,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58301\/revisions\/58302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/58069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}