Maddison's dance – Premier League – J12 – Manchester City-Tottenham (0-4)

What's better for than crushing a convalescent Manchester City (0-4)? That's surely what James Maddison said to himself as he entered the pitch at the Etihad Stadium this Saturday evening. 95 minutes later, the English international signed a recital by offering himself a double and plunging the reigning champion, undefeated on his land for almost 2 years, into crisis.

James and his magic paw

If Premier League fans may have been impressed by his XXL performance, there is little chance that they would have been surprised. Not yet known to the general public, James Maddison is accustomed to masterclass across the Channel since his time at Leicester. But beat them Skyblues at home with such a score, it had simply not happened since 2003. It was enough to make the former master of playing tennis happy. Foxes, logically named man of the match: « These are rare days… Coming to the champions, seeing how much they dominated, winning 4-0, it's specialsaid the native of Coventry at the microphone of Sky. We will remember this meeting. It is important that we take advantage of it. I will definitely enjoy it. »

Endowed with a rare quality of passing and capable of scoring beautiful goals from free kicks, shines at the number 10 position. Author of at least 8 assists each season since the 2020-2021 financial year, the Englishman of Irish origin is like a fish in water in the system put in place by Ange Postecoglou, where he is free as air. His second pawn against Manchester City is proof of this with his tasty combination with . Under the spell, his trainer could only have sweet words for decisive 9 times this season (5 goals, 4 assists): “He was exceptional. You have to be against City, and Madders was fantastic. »

Covered by Postecoglou

At a press conference, Postecoglou spoke more about his vice-captain, looking back on his recent bad patch: « He was very good for us at the start of the season, then he had a few lackluster matches. Even though he was not called up for the national team, he worked very hard in training for two weeks, he did not lower his ambitions regarding the type of player he wants to become, analyzed the coach of Spurs. It is up to us to help him in this quest. Today he was very important for us in the build-up because he was always looking in tight areas and defensively he worked very hard. This is to his credit. »

By being one of the great artisans of first since 2006, Maddison necessarily scored points in the eyes of the new coach of the Three LionsThomas Tuchel. With only seven selections on the clock and no matches in a major international competition, the jewel of the Spurs still has everything to do with his selection, where the competition is insane (Jude Bellingham, Cole Palmer, Phil Foden among others). But before that, we will have to continue to terrorize opposing defenses in the Premier League to finally get everyone to agree.

Manchester City humiliated by Tottenham