It happened in the space of only six minutes and 22 seconds, the time it took for Tottenham Hotspur to score three unlikely goals and for the bubble to burst for Roberto Mancinias part for what'll certainly be the last time this year. They couldn't have caused it to be much simpler for Manchester United if they had tried, given that the leaders need only gain at Old Trafford on Monday night to produce their 20th title standard. It cannot be that City have been intimidated in to allowing their neighbours rise to the name with potentially four activities of the season left to perform, since there was nothing especially scary about Unitedas kind of late. Instead, a familiar panic took hold of City and once it had hold, there is no telling so just how bad things might get for them. For some of the first half, when they took the lead through Samir Nasri, City lived up to their billing while the type group of the month with Carlos Tevez leaving the Spurs protection like butterfly lovers in futile pursuit of just one challenging example. On 42 minutes when Hugo Lloris rather reached out a to stop it, an instant that Andre Villas-Boas would later identify as critical to the morning the Argentine should have won their second goal. For much of that first half, and a good deal of the second, Villas-Boas looked like a person considering the fall of his time. The match was ended by him needing to limit his assistant Steffen Freund from joining in the goal festivities. Somewhere in the center was a tactical shift that'll take pride of devote the Villas-Boas coaching dossier, and undoubtedly those theses that fight for him as you of the truly amazing modern coaches. On the hour, he changed Scott Parker and Gylfi Sigurdsson with Tom Huddlestone and Lewis Holtby and changed the game. A dozen minutes later he tried the hapless Emannuel Adebayor for Jermain Defoe who scored the whole thing and the 2nd was recast in the popular imagination as a tactical masterpiece. You can say that there were precious few other available choices at his disposal, or that no-one was going to be less successful at centre-forward than Adebayor, not, say, Jake Livermore. In truth when he considered the counter Villas-Boas had few choices when it found chasing the game against the champions, but the credit is deserved by him for at least taking the plunge. It absolutely was Holtby who provided Defoe for the next purpose, and Huddlestone who passed to Bale for the next. Suddenly Spurs had come to life and, it absolutely was about time after one win in their last eight games in all contests. They changed to a 4-3-3 formation and City had no answer, bringing on the lesser-spotted Scott Sinclair and then Joleon Lescott in a small try to change the game around. It thrusts Spurs back in the center of the intriguing three-way fight between themselves, Chelsea and Arsenal for the three Champions League sites. If it's still alive by the full time that Spurs visit Stamford Bridge a couple of weeks on Wednesday, the game in hand both sides have over Arsenal, then that match promises to be an absorbing competition with therefore much at stake for both teams. As for City, occasionally it is hard to see when they perform as well as they did in the initial half why it's gone therefore wrong for them this year. In the first five full minutes, Jan Vertonghen made the mistake of assuming he'd seen off the risk from Tevez, ushering him out to the proper ahead of the City man unexpectedly changed course. He played in James Milner who cut the ball back again to Nasri for a neat finish. Nasri was lucky that referee Lee Mason didn't start to see the full extent of his bad problem on Kyle Walker eight minutes later which went largely unnoticed on the Spurs table also. Nasri, and then Edin Dzeko, had further odds in the initial half but were unable to complete. Gareth Barry was running the midfield much as he'd against Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final a week earlier, but trouble was just around the corner. Spurs had threatened just once in the first half when Joe Hart was required to produce a great save your self from Walker as he ran onto a by Clint Dempsey into the right route of the region. It had been Dempsey who scored Spursa equaliser, a ball used the exterior of Baleas left foot from the proper side. It eluded Vincent Kompany, out of sorts in the second half, and offered itself great for tucking away at the post. Bale had started in a place behind Adebayor and struggled after having a two match absence to find a invest the game. He seemed a whole lot more powerful on the proper side. It was the ball was won by Holtby who in midfield for the next target, passing it out to the right channel where Defoe had taken Kompany. The Spurs man moved the ball straight back onto his right foot as he carried it into the area and hit some of those bad photographs which are past the goalkeeper before he responds. It was Defoeas first goal in the league since Boxing Day and by that time, White Hart Lane was in raptures and the old confidence was flooding right back. Huddlestone, a remarkable player in midfield, who passed the ball well as City tired, developed the 3rd target. He noticed a of opportunity between two defenders as City backed off him to produce the beginning and Bale lifted the next softly over Hart with the exterior of his left foot. Game over for City who'd probably rather get the worst of it out the way in which today with a United victory over Aston Villa that settles the subject race once and for all and allows Mancinias group to focus on obtaining 2nd place and winning the FA Cup final on 11 Might. It'll hurt at hand the prize back but then this game placed much of the great and the poor then if they required reminding of where they've gone wrong over the last ten weeks. Spurs: LLORIS 7/10, DAWSON 6, WALKER 6, VERTONGHEN 6, ASSOU-EKOTTO 6, PARKER 6 DEMBELE 7, DEMPSEY 6, BALE 7, SIGURDSSON 5, ADEBAYOR 4 Birmingham City: HART 6, KOMPANY 5, CLICHY 5, NASTASIC 5, ZABALETA 6, 6, TEVEZ 7,A BARRY 7, NASRI 6, Y TOURE, MILNER 7, DZEKO 4 Goals. Spurs: Dempsey (75), Defoe (79), Bale (82) Man City: Nasri (5) Substitutions: Tottenham Hotspur Holtby 7 (Sigurdsson, 60), Huddlestone 7 (Parker, 61), Defoe 7 (Adebayor, 71). Birmingham City Kolarov 6 (Milner, H/T), Sinclair (Dzeko, 83), Lescott (Clichy, 90+1). Bookings: Tottenham Dawson, Assou-Ekotto. Person City Ymca Toure, Hart. Man of the match Bale. Match status 8/10. Possession: Tottenham 45%. Guy City 55%. Efforts on target: Tottenham 6. Person City 4. Umpire L Mason (Lancashire). Attendance 36,121
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