Ireland plays right in to Spurs' hands

Tottenham 2 Manchester City 1:In an erratic match no one was to be more wayward than Stephen Ireland. With the score tied at 1-1, the Manchester City midfielder launched a two-footed leap in the 82nd minute that was more martial art than soccer skill.

He was sent off by the referee Mark Halsey. A three-match ban is to ensue for Ireland and he will also be punished by fresh recounting of episodes when he dropped his shorts or invented a deceased granny to wangle his way out of an international squad, but perhaps it is this defeat that will hurt the Cobh man the most.

It arrived a minute after his departure. Steed Malbranque struck a low, raking ball from the left that came off the far post and the substitute Jermain Defoe netted the rebound, with the aid of a deflection off Micah Richards.

There is no means of telling whether Ireland's departure broke City's concentration, but the brooding visitors will believe it had some effect. The incident will be dwelt on to an even greater extent than a Tottenham Hotspur opener that should have been disallowed.

The victors are bound to deduce that a win of this nature must have some resonance. It is only the second Premier League victory for Juande Ramos, but the result sends his team into a respectable 13th place. The impression of security may be illusory but that does not stop it from being reassuring. While the flaws have not disappeared, they were overcome.

Just when Tottenham might have believed they were defending tolerably for a change, their marking went awry at a Martin Petrov corner and an unmarked Rolando Bianchi, who had just come off the bench, headed in after 61 minutes. That was one of the few occasions when City looked menacing, yet their manager Sven-Goran Eriksson was almost jolly after this loss.

"It was one of the better away games ," said Eriksson. "We tried to win, which has not always been so in the past."

It was Eriksson's purpose, too, to apply a light touch to the Ireland episode. He and the player had reviewed the lunge on a laptop in the dressingroom and knew there was no disputing the offence.

"The tackle was not nice," said the manager, "but every player who does that should not be killed. He paid a heavy price and of course he apologised and is sorry."

Tottenham went ahead in the 45th minute after a free-kick was given when it was far from clear that Vedran Corluka had fouled Dimitar Berbatov. Jermaine Jenas whipped it in from the left and Berbatov flicked it on with his heel. Pascal Chimbonda was offside and the ball appeared to go into the net off his forearm, but Halsey found no reason to chalk off the goal.

Eriksson was generous to the referee: "It was difficult for him to see," he said.

Defoe had taken over from a maladroit Darren Bent, who shot when he might have left Jenas with an open goal in the ninth minute, but the manager insisted that the match-winner had not risen in the hierarchy of White Hart Lane strikers because there is no such pecking order.

Tottenham will hope that the platitudes keep on coming, since they often come in the contentment of victory.