Manchester City continue to make their presence known amidst the title race, as the Cityzens travelled to the capital to complete a 2-0 victory against Tottenham Hotpsur at Brisbane Road Stadium. City manager Gareth Taylor spoke in his post-match press conference, highlighting the victory as an impressive feat for his side.

Speaking in regards to how he believed his side performed against Robert Vilahamn’s Tottenham team, Taylor analysed the energetic performance with the following statements.

“Spurs are energetic, and they keep coming at you and they’ve got good players in their team. They make substitutions that can hurt you, in the likes of Naz, but I think we had a game plan that sometimes you prepare for a certain situation, and it changes, but it was exactly the game we thought it was going to be. I think that allowed us to really implement what we’ve done all week. We’ve had a big week, we played Liverpool at home Sunday, we played Manchester United obviously in the cup, then come here away to Spurs.”

Despite the scoreline proving to be less overwhelming than their previous 7-0 victory over Tottenham, Manchester City dictated the tempo of the game with control. Holding 68% of the possession, as well as double the amount of passes than their opposition (718-351), Taylor spoke in regards to how he felt his players performed as the fixture ebbed and flowed.

“I thought we dominated the early periods of the game. I thought that diamond of Khiara [Kheating], Yui [Hasegawa], Alex [Greenwood] and Laia [Aleixandri] just allowed us to build such platform.

We had a lot of opportunities down the right in the first half an hour. We came away from our principles a little bit in the ten minutes before half time, but just in terms of winning the ball back quickly. Super proud of the players, I think that was a really mature performance and a really professional performance. We arguably could have got a few more goals, but a clean sheet away from home against Spurs, and we move on to the next one.”

Manchester City were rocked with the devastating news that Jill Roord had ruptured her Anterior cruciate ligament during City’s midweek fixture with Manchester United. After the side’s first goal against the Spurs, Lauren Hemp held up Roord’s jersey as a tribute to the Netherlands midfielder as she commences her road to recovery. Taylor reflected on the touching gesture, describing it was one that ‘says a lot about Jill.’

“It was really nice, it surprised me I didn’t know anything about it. It says a lot about Jill, the fact that she travelled with us today and she wanted to come. Also the fact that why we’ve seen such brilliant play from her this season, the way she has hit the ground running- a lot of the credit has to go to the group of players. You saw today, everyone is together so it was a really nice touch and really nice for Jill to be here to experience that.

It’s a blow, there’s no denying. She’s such a top player that’s so hard to replace, I don’t think you can replace Jill and we know that. But what I like about the group, is we’ve showed a different side to us this season. It’s a loss, but now, this is where you see the best of us and we step into that space. I thought we did that really well.”

Bunny Shaw found herself in the most likely of places once again this weekend, as the star striker once again wrote her name on the scoresheet during her 50th appearance for the club. The Manchester City boss spoke of Shaw’s performance in high regard, specifically praising her work out of possession.

“Bunny is always going to get her chances, this team is good at creating, she understands and realises that. I think the thing with Bunny is she will always score goals, we can see that. The thing that impressed me most was her energy and her work rate without the ball. The way she holds the play up, it allows us to progress up pitch. What she does obviously in set plays for and against, she’s just such a difficult player to play against, and one that’s done fantastic for us.”

Manchester City are back in action in the Barclays Women’s Super League on Sunday, as they host Leicester City at Joie Stadium.