Published: 17:00, 5 February 2026 | Updated: 17:00, 5 February 2026

Antoine Semenyo appeared sprightlier than envisaged when leaving the away dressing room at Tottenham last Sunday. Manchester City had held a debrief in there, where it was impressed on them that there were still 42 points on offer in this title race.

Quite what else you could possibly say after surrendering a two-goal lead at a basket case that had seemed close to putting Thomas Frank out of his misery under a fortnight earlier is anybody’s guess. But irrespective, Semenyo genuinely gave off the impression that Arsenal, six points clear, were catchable.

One of the reasons behind this can only be that City’s goalscoring will not continue to present such an issue moving forward. While exuding surprising positivity, Semenyo did admit that City ought to have been out of sight by half-time and thus not allowing a recent allergy to second halves to flare up. ‘I had a chance and obviously others had chances as well,’ he said.

Semenyo was talking about when Erling Haaland set him away one-on-one with a backpedalling Joao...