Joe Hart put in a man of the match shift to deny Spurs all three points on Saturday.

The side from N17 put on a great show of attacking, flowing football. Gareth Bale on the left wing and Aaron Lennon on a normal day would be vying for the man of the match award, however they were over shadowed by the young English keepers performance. Were another keeper in goal, the score could well have been three or four by the half time whistle. But Hart pulled off a string of fine saves to deny Defoe, Disco Benny and Tom Huddlestone, earning himself a mild round of applause from the Paxton road end as he walked out to take his place in the second half.

The second half was slightly less one sided with City finding a more suitable shape for themselves allowing them to better contain Tottenham’s attacking threat. Shots at goal however still eluded the Sky Blues and they always looked edgy. It was the kind of game that saw home fans frustrated and worried. Supporters around the stadium have seen it plenty of times, the home side dominating only to lose to a scrappy undeserved goal against the run of play, and today could have been one of those days were it not for a City team lacking in ideas and completely without any bite up front at all.

Redknapp became proactive however and swapped Defoe for Keane and Crouch for  Pavlyuchenko in the hopes of once again increasing his sides attacking threat. It worked with Spurs again forcing the Manchester side back into their own half but the goals still didn’t arrive and even adding Mexico’s World Cup star, Giovanni Dos Santos, Tottenham failed to capitalise on attractive attacking football they showed.

So that was Saturday but now we must look to Tuesday, with the first of our two legged affair with the Young Boys of Switzerland coming up. The opening fixture is an away tie, to be played on an artificial pitch the type of which the Premier League does not allow. This means the home team are at a distinct advantage from the outset as they’ll have a better understanding of how the ball should run and how the ground will feel underfoot. Redknapp has already highlighted this as a problem, and will hopefully be doing all he can to overcome the issue.

Ledley King has already been ruled out of the game, likely due to knee complications which plague his career, so the honour to lead the team out into the Clubs first Champions League qualifier falls to Michael Dawson. The rest of the line up should remain unchanged from Saturday, though the option of changing one or both of the front two will possibly prove too tempting for Harry to resist.

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Spurs are due to kick off the new Premier League season this Saturday and its so close I can almost smell the horse manure scattered around the streets of White Hart Lane.

Manchester City visit in what Sky are hoping will be a knock-out first fixture of the season. Last season Spurs manager to perform a double over the Eastlands side beating them home and away, with the away victory effectively acting as a playoff tie for the 4th Champions League spot. Peter Crouch lept like a tall awkward looking 6′7″ marrionette puppet to head home in the closing stages of the game,  securing the 4th place finish for Tottenham, and a place in Europes elite contest for the first time in the clubs long history (unless you’re a pedant and you don’t count the qualifier’s as the Champions League).

Tottenham ended last season with a terrible defeat to relegated Burnley in the last game, but previous to that they had a run of three valuable wins over Arsenal (for the first time in over a decade in the league), Chelsea and the previously mentioned victory over Manchester City.

Manchester City’s late form wasn’t great, and pre-season games have seen them struggle, despite spending nearly £100m in the transfer window. While Tottenham’s only signing so far has been Sando from Brazillian club Internacional, who has yet to actually turn out for the Lilywhite’s due to a previous commitment to the South American side in their FA cup the Copa Do Brazil.

Expectations for fans of both sides are running high, with some newsmedia tipping City for a run at the title, and others making them odds on favorites to clinch a top four spot.

Whilst Tottenham’s own manager Harry Redknapp has taken time off from not commenting on players belonging to other teams, to claim Spurs have a real shot at the title if they can make two or three more signings (of players under contract at other teams).

Whatever happens on Saturday the game let us hope the match is at least somewhat entertaining, which could reignite the countries waining hunger for football after a poor World Cup and a highly unexciting transfer window.

With the end of Brazil’s involvement in the World Cup on Friday came also, the end of any Spurs involvement in the competition.

Spurs’ first choice keeper Gomes was all that was left from what was originally a long list of Tottenham names.

Perhaps most disappointingly for many of the Tottenham faithful was the loss of our England stars in the first knock-out stage as the Three Lions fell to a strong Germany side in a 4-1 (two if you count Lampard’s goal which some book-makers paid out on) defeat. Lennon started Englands first two games, but was dropped for the sides only victory of the tournament as Fabio Capello opted for James Milner on the right instead. Defoe started the final two games, scoring one goal, while Peter Crouch was limited to coming on from the bench. Ledley King, started against the USA before coming off injured at half time, while Michael Dawson didnt feature at all as Capello opted for the experience of Carragher or Upson in favour of the actual talent that and defensive awareness that Dawson may have provided.

Out also in this round went starlet Giovanni  Dos Santos. Dos Santos had impressed in the group stages as he provided much of Mexico’s attacking threat, using his pace to good affect and a great menace on the counter attack.

In an interview with Talk Sport on Friday the 2nd of July Harry Redknapp was quoted as saying that he would like to see Giovanni stay with the Tottenham, and he could have a future, if only he could curb what Redknapp alludes to as an excessive drinking habit with the quote “if he could pass a nightclub as well as he could pass a ball, he’d be dangerous”

Honduras and Wilson Palacios never escaped the group stage.

Also falling in the first round were our representatives for  Cameroon, Disco Benny and Seb Bassong as Ghana became the only African team to make it through the group stages with former Tottenham player Kevin Prince Boateng amongst their ranks.