Man City 1-2 Tottenham

Darren Bent scored twice as 10-man Tottenham continued their good recent run against nine-man Man City.

Robinho fired the opener for the home side in the 15th minute before Gelson Fernandes was sent off for a second bookable offence.

Bent ran clear and slotted home to equalise for Spurs and then side-footed his second on the hour.

City captain Richard Dunne was shown a straight red and Spurs' Benoit Assou-Ekotto was dismissed late on.

The result extends Tottenham's unbeaten run under Harry Redknapp to five matches and will be particularly sweet for the man himself - only six weeks ago his Portsmouth side were thumped 6-0 at the City of Manchester Stadium.

When the initial anger regarding the sendings-off subsides, City manager Mark Hughes will be left to reflect on the fact that his side remain consistent only in their inconsistency.

Fuelled by their newfound confidence, Tottenham started the stronger and had the lions' share of possession, and they forged the game's first real chance through the sprightly Luka Modric, who curled a decent long-range effort just past Joe Hart's left-hand post.

However, in what was essentially Man City's first real attack and against the run of play, they opened the scoring.

Gomes could only parry a shot from Darius Vassell from the right side of the penalty area and Robinho was on hand to fire into the largely unguarded net.

The wind was taken out of the home side's sails, though, when Fernandes was sent off following a second yellow card.

He was first booked after 18 minutes for unsporting behaviour and then six minutes later was controversially shown red for an illegal challenge on David Bentley, whose dismissal changed the course of the match.

Shortly after, City defender Dunne completely missed an innocuous-looking long-ball forward and allowed Bent to race clear before calmly slotting the ball under the advancing Hart for his 10th of the season.

After the break Tottenham were able to funnel their numerical advantage into a domination of possession. However, real openings were rare and City, with the bit between their embittered teeth, punched above their reduced weight.

City's resilience was only brief, though, and Bent did grab his second of the game on 63 minutes. Jermaine Jenas held a long ball up and laid the ball off to the onrushing striker who expertly slotted his shot inside the far post.

Tottenham were themselves reduced to 10-men late on when Assou-Ekotto was shown a straight red for a rash foul on Pablo Zabaleta.

City pushed hard for an equaliser but it was Tottenham who came closest to adding to the score when counter-attacking substitute Aaron Lennon found Bent in space, only for his shot to be saved.

"We started very brightly but losing Gelson made it very difficult for us.

"I'm not sure he's made any contact and the referee needs to take into consideration the conditions.

"I thought the players showed fantastic character and we really forced the issue and Spurs were hanging on at the end."

"It's been a fantastic couple of weeks for us.

"Today was a big game for us and I thought we started the game well and suddenly found ourselves 1-0 down but we got back in and started playing.

"It was a funny old day with the three sendings off."
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