Manchester City Vs. Tottenham Hotspur, 2012 Premier League: Late Penalty Sees City Win Odd Game

Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur contrived to put all of the excitement of an entire football match into a period spanning no more than ten second-half minutes and then injury time. Quite why they did this is unclear, because it meant the rest of the game was fairly dire, but it made for interesting watching thanks to the five goals scored when the teams were actually doing anything interesting.

After nothing happened for almost an hour, the game burst to life when Samir Nasri raced onto a through ball played by David Silva and lashed past Brad Friedel, and City looked set to seal an easy win when a corner kick was bundled home by Joleon Lescott. Spurs weren't planning on going down without a fight, though, and a terrible attempted back header by ersatz centre back Stefan Savic gifted Jermain Defoe with the chance to race around Joe Hart and roll into an empty net.

The visitors were right back in the game at 2-1, and better was to come. Nothing much looked like happening when Gareth Bale received the ball at the edge of the box, but the Welsh dangerman opened up his body beautifully and sent a curling effort that dipped over Hart's outstretched hand and made the score 2-2.

At this point, both teams apparently decided that they were bored of playing, and the rest of regular time was marked only by Lescott elbowing Younes Kaboul in the face for no reason as well as a possibly deliberate Mario Balotelli stamp on Scott Parker's heroic head of heroic hair. Neither looked very fun for anyone except Lescott and Balotelli. The time between the four goals, incidentally, was a mere nine minutes.

With neither team looking threatening all the way into injury time, it fell upon Bale to bring things back to life. The winger burst through the City centre, skipping clear of the defenders and squared for Defoe to tap in, but the pass was a little too far ahead of the striker and he was only able to divert it inches past the post. Then the ball went up the other end and Balotelli managed to goad Ledley King into fouling him in the penalty box.