How Tottenham 3-4 Man City was the greatest game in English football history | OneFootball

Everybody knows that the best nights out are unplanned ones, an oasis in the Sahara desert that constitutes your social life.

Whereas occasions like New Year’s Eve suffer from overhype and the pressure to spend £12 to enter your local, spontaneous evenings can often lodge themselves in your memory.

Going with the flow is underrated. Which is precisely why Manchester City’s epic 4-3 win over Tottenham in an FA Cup Fourth Round replay is one of the greatest games ever. Nobody saw it coming.

Back in February 2004, both Spurs and Manchester City were languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League and battling with decades-long existential ennui.

Spurs had sacked Glenn Hoddle in September, putting David Pleat in caretaker charge. One of British football’s elder statesmen, Pleat’s analogue coaching methods didn’t compute in an increasingly digital age.

City were even worse, botching the goodwill of their first season at the City of Manchester Stadium and shamelessly flirting with relegation.

But their line-up on that frigid February evening at White Hart Lane is a delight to pore over 22 years later.

This was an era where English football’s future juggernaughts were the northern West Ham, an assortment of misfits, journeyman, pensioners and the odd gem like Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Kevin Keegan had even seen fit to sign David Seaman in the summer of 2003 without the WD-40 needed to grease his creaking joints.

Seaman left at the start of 2004 and his replacement David James was cup-tied. City fielded Arni Arason against Spurs, the first Football Manager regen in the history of the English game.

You’ll know what happened next; Tottenham raced into a 3-0 lead, Joey Barton got sent off for arguing about female pundits and City staged a gargantuan comeback with four second-half goals.

The highlights are glorious, even if it’s still probably too soon for Spurs fans. But there are other details which make them so life-affirming for everybody else.

Firstly, this FA Cup classic came before the Great Leap Forward in pitch technology. Even at Premier League level, the playing surface would cut up like Usher on the dancefloor during mid-winter.

Nowadays, matches take place on bowling greens. Progress, if your definition constitutes shuffling around in rigid formation and hustling opponents.

Secondly, you can hear the away fans chanting to the tune of ‘Hey Baby’ by DJ Otzi shortly before Robbie Keane doubles Tottenham’s lead.

Terrace anthems are flexible things, often latching on to chart music you’d need to waterboard supporters to get them to confess to liking.

DJ Otzi and his 2001 hit have gone out of rotation and the British game is a poorer place without it.

City’s spirits at the break were low enough to have been sourced directly from the earth’s core. Three goals down, Barton dismissed and star forward Nicolas Anelka had limped off injured.

Keegan wore the look of a haunted man. Several City fans must have called it a day and gone in search of a North London boozer.

Three contrasting goals later – Sylvian Distin’s emphatic header, Anthony Gardner’s unfortunate own goal and Wright-Phillips’ cute dink – and the contractual obligation of a second-half had been transformed into national news.

Arason also played his role, making a fantastic double save to keep City in the game at 3-1. The stars were moving from their entrenched positions and aligning for Keegan’s men.

Such a unique occasion deserved an unsung hero, a career-defining moment for a player unaccustomed to the spotlight. Step forward, Jon Macken.

Macken had been signed from Preston when City were in the First Division (ask your parents) and only managed to score seven goals in 51 appearances during his three years with the club.

But he’s also part of City’s folklore for his clever, looping 90th-minute headed winner. An understandably excited Martin Tyler said on Sky Sports that City had “made the impossible possible”.

Macken had to fight for every opportunity, given both Anelka and Robbie Fowler were ahead of him in the pecking order.

He’s chiefly remembered for being snubbed for David James when City needed a goal to qualify for the UEFA Cup in May 2005. Real heads will recall his pivotal role in an acid trip of a football match.

“They’ll talk about this game long after we’ve all gone,” Keegan said afterwards.

It later emerged that Keegan had turned to his assistant Derek Fazackerley and said: “We’re 3-0 down and a man down. Where’s the nearest job centre?”

Nobody would’ve expected an FA Cup replay between two mediocre teams to eventually have its own Wikipedia page, immortalising as great a comeback as English football has ever known.

For all their future success, this match is probably still on the podium for a generation of City fans

The best nights are often the ones we attach the least expectations to. Pre-takeover Manchester City taught us that.