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sport
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competitions
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8505484
-----
# Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur: five things Roberto Mancini's side
learned against Spurs
## Manchester City secured Champions League football by defeating Tottenham
but the game showed up areas where the richest team in the world still need to
improve.
![Manchester City celebrate Peter Crouch's own goal - five things Roberto
Mancini's side learned against Tottenham][1]
Net profit: Manchester City celebrate Peter Crouch's own goal Photo: GETTY
IMAGES
[![Rory Smith][2]][3]
By [Rory Smith][4] 10:00PM BST 10 May 2011
[Follow Rory Smith on Twitter][5]
[Comments][6]
**1. Beware of the Champions League**
At the third time of asking, Manchester City and their billionaire backers
have their prize. The world's richest club will compete in the world's most
exclusive competition for the first time next season, after an outlay of
around £300 million.
But Roberto Mancini and Sheikh Mansour would do well to take the fate of
Tottenham as a warning that the hard work is yet to start: since beating Milan
in the last 16, Spurs have won just one of 11 domestic encounters.
Getting to the Champions League is difficult; performing in it and maintaining
a place in the top four at the same time is a Herculean task.
**2. Tevez's heir is already in place **
## Related Articles
* [Manchester City 1 Tottenham 0][7]
10 May 2011
* [Telegraph player rater][8]
22 May 2011
* [Premier League fixtures and results][9]
28 Dec 2010
* [Live Premier League table][10]
12 Jan 2011
* [Mancini hits the big time][11]
10 May 2011
His beaming smile upon being summoned from the bench with eight minutes to
play will have offered hope to fearful City's fans, but it is a treacherous
emotion. Carlos Tevez's scowl just moments before, as Roberto Mancini
instructed him to continue warming up, belied the unease in relations.
The Italian admitted on Tuesday that he can only hope Tevez "changes his mind"
over his desired move to Serie A, but there is no reason for sadness. In David
Silva, City possess a player of greater class, guile and technique than Tevez;
the Spaniard is a Champions League quality player. He must not just be
retained, but promoted to the hub of Mancini's side.
**3. Goals must be found**
That is not to say Tevez need not be replaced. The Argentine remains City's
only reliable source of goals, something highlighted with alarming frequency
by the travails of Edin Dzeko.
The Bosnian, at £27 million, has done little to dispel fears that he is simply
another expensive mistake, to join Roque Santa Cruz, Jo and Craig Bellamy in
the list of strikers who simply have not worked out at Eastlands.
With Mario Balotelli's future also shrouded in a degree of uncertainty, it
looks likely that City will have to invest in yet another striker this summer.
This time, they simply have to get it right.
**4. Steel is more reliable than silk**
For all the criticism of Mancini, for all the doubts over whether he possesses
the apparently requisite attacking instincts to win the Premier League, he has
built a City side of tremendous resilience.
Spurs piled on intense pressure here, particularly in the second half, but in
Vincent Kompany, Nigel De Jong, Pablo Zabaleta and James Milner, the Italian
can call on the sort of dogged performers needed in European combat.
Harry Redknapp's team have more swash and buckle, but this City would not have
been swept aside so imperiously in the Tevez.
**5. In patience lies thrift**
For all Redknapp's tittle-tattle that Champions League qualification will
bring about an Earth-shattering transfer spree from City, the club are adamant
that there will be no repeat of the splurges of the last two years this time
around, thanks to Uefa's looming diktats on Financial Fair Play.
Besides, there was evidence in abundance here that no overhaul is required:
Joleon Lescott, Micah Richards, Joe Hart, Zabaleta and Kompany - all players
whose futures have been in doubt at some point in the last three years -
excelled.
Mancini is an authoritarian, but there is a democracy to his management
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## [Premier League][17]
* ### [Sport »][18]
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* ### [Tottenham Hotspur »][21]
* ### [Rory Smith »][3]
In football
[![][22] ][23]
### [Agony and ecstasy][23]
[![Premier League action][24] ][25]
### [Premier League action][25]
[![Manchester United legends on the club's incredible history of league title
success][26] ][27]
### [A history of success][27]
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