Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City

Schoolboys and a church club barely out of their infancy, these two sides met in the league for the first time during the 1909-10 season.

Tottenham Hotspur had been elected to the Football League's Second Division in 1908, and their first league meeting with Manchester City came during the 1909-10 season. Both clubs were still finding their feet in the professional game. Spurs had been founded in 1882 by a group of schoolboys; City had evolved from St. Mark's (West Gorton) in 1880. Neither side could have imagined the fixture would still be generating headlines over a century later.

Spurs lifted the 1921 FA Cup at Stamford Bridge; City had claimed the same trophy seventeen years earlier, the two clubs sharing an interwar First Division stage without quite reaching its summit.

Tottenham won the FA Cup in 1921, beating Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 at Stamford Bridge. Manchester City, meanwhile, had won the same trophy in 1904 and the league title in 1937. Through the interwar years, both clubs were regular fixtures in the First Division, though neither dominated. Their meetings were honest, competitive affairs between two sides who considered themselves a cut above the average but not quite at the very summit.

The first English club in the 20th century to claim the Double; Blanchflower, Mackay, and Greaves left the rest of the division without an answer.

The 1960-61 season belongs to Tottenham. Under Bill Nicholson, Spurs became the first club in the 20th century to win the League and FA Cup Double, playing football of a quality that left opponents bewildered. City, by contrast, were in a period of relative decline. The fixture during this era was often one-sided, with Spurs' side featuring Danny Blanchflower, Dave Mackay, and Jimmy Greaves proving too much for most opponents.

Villa beat four defenders to settle it; some goals write their own legend.

The 1981 FA Cup final is one of the great Wembley occasions. Spurs and City drew 1-1 in a match remembered for Ricky Villa's mazy run and Tommy Hutchison's misfortune of scoring at both ends. The replay, five days later, produced one of the most celebrated goals in Cup history: Villa weaving past four City defenders before slotting home. Spurs won 3-2. It remains a defining moment in the rivalry.

City dropped to the third tier whilst Spurs never left the top flight; the Premier League's founding members could hardly have taken more different paths.

Both Tottenham and Manchester City were founding members of the Premier League in 1992, though their trajectories diverged sharply. Spurs remained in the top flight throughout, while City suffered two relegations and spent time in the third tier of English football during the late 1990s. Their Premier League meetings were sporadic until City's return to the top division in 2002.

Overnight, Spurs went from rivals to underdogs; Sheikh Mansour's millions rewrote the fixture's entire dynamic.

Sheikh Mansour's acquisition of Manchester City in September 2008 rewrote the script entirely. Within three years, City were winning the FA Cup. Within four, they were Premier League champions. Spurs, who had been building steadily under various managers, suddenly found themselves competing against a club with virtually unlimited resources. The fixture shifted from a contest of equals to one where Tottenham were cast as plucky challengers.

Sterling's disallowed goal in stoppage time meant Spurs went through on away goals; a hip, VAR, and sheer disbelief did the rest.

April 2019 produced one of the most extraordinary nights in Champions League history. Spurs, playing in their brand new stadium for the first time in European competition, faced City in the quarter-finals. The second leg at the Etihad finished 4-3 to City, but Spurs went through on away goals after a 1-0 first-leg win. Fernando Llorente's hip, VAR, and Raheem Sterling's disallowed stoppage-time goal created a finish that left both sets of supporters in disbelief.

Four League Cups in a row for City; thirteen barren years and counting for Spurs.

The 2021 Carabao Cup final saw City beat Spurs 1-0 at Wembley, with Aymeric Laporte heading home a late winner. It was played in front of 8,000 supporters as part of the UK government's pilot scheme for the return of fans during the Covid-19 pandemic. For City, it was a fourth consecutive League Cup triumph. For Spurs, it extended a trophy drought stretching back to 2008.

Even as City conquered Europe, Spurs quietly beat them twice in a row under Postecoglou; history, it seems, has a sense of humour.

Manchester City's historic Treble in 2022-23, winning the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League, cemented their status as one of the greatest club sides ever assembled. Yet Spurs remained a thorn. Under Ange Postecoglou, Tottenham beat City in back-to-back Premier League matches in the 2023-24 season, proving that on their day, this fixture still has the capacity to surprise. The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with its 62,850 capacity and single-tier South Stand, provides one of the most intense atmospheres in English football for these occasions.