Manchester City 1 Tottenham 2: ONLY 10 weeks into Manchester City's brave new world, Mark Hughes's position as manager is coming under scrutiny. It might seem ludicrous but football is an impatient business these days.
This was City's seventh defeat in 12 league games and the billionaires in Abu Dhabi could never have envisaged that by mid-November, the team they had earmarked for a possible Champions League finish would be a point above the relegation zone.
Hughes will certainly have some awkward questions to face if, as proposed, he flies to the Middle East this week for his first meeting with the club's new owner, Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
The manager spoke of having "some very productive meetings" over the weekend with his chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, but the worry for City is that it might get worse before it gets better given that the fixture list takes them to Hull City on Sunday, followed by home games against Arsenal and Manchester United.
Barely a weekend in the Premier League passes when one manager is not deemed "under pressure" and Hughes is now at a club where the high expectation levels make him vulnerable.
Fair? Probably not, but men of wealth are not exactly renowned for their tolerance, as City know from Thaksin Shinawatra's ruthless sacking of Sven-Goran Eriksson. Eriksson took 25 points from his first 12 league games; Hughes has managed 13 and did not sound entirely convincing as he tried to pass some of the blame for this defeat to the referee, Mike Dean, for "not taking into account the (rainy) conditions".
The first thing City must learn is that they cannot win matches if they are incapable of keeping 11 players on the pitch. They had been leading, with Robinho scoring his seventh league goal of the season and mesmerising the Tottenham defence, until Gelson Fernandes received two quick yellow cards to leave them a man down after only 26 minutes.
Thereafter, Harry Redknapp's renascent team took control, equalising within three minutes via Darren Bent before the same player angled in the decisive goal midway through the second half. The game then degenerated into a nine-against-10 affair, with Dean producing two more red cards in the final seven minutes.
The first was brandished at Richard Dunne after the out-of-form Republic of Ireland international - four times City's player of the year but in recent weeks a danger to his own team - had brought down Bent, denying him a possible hat-trick.
Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Tottenham's otherwise impressive left-back, was next to go after his second bookable offence, a lunge on Pablo Zabaleta, but that was only a minute from the end and, despite a courageous effort, the team with nine men seldom threatened to salvage a draw.
Redknapp has now taken 10 points from a possible 12 in his first fortnight in the job. "Two weeks ago we had only two points," he said as Tottenham climbed out of the relegation zone. "If we hadn't had this run we could have been well adrift. It would have been scary."
Hughes, meanwhile, is left to consider that his team have won only one of their past seven league fixtures, losing the last three, and they contributed heavily to their own downfall once Robinho had turned in the rebound from Darius Vassell's shot to open the scoring.
Hughes has some tough decisions to make, not least whether he can afford to persist with Dunne. It would be unfair to make the captain City's only scapegoat but Dunne's performance was notable not only for his red card but also a series of horrible mistakes inside his own half.
The rejuvenated Ben now has 11 goals in all competitions this season.
"It's all about confidence," said Redknapp, the memories of his 6-0 drubbing here in September as Portsmouth's manager fading into the past.
• Guardian Service
