After Manchester City’s recent defeat to Sunderland, manager Manuel Pellegrini’s assertion that his team would still win the Barclays Premier League sounded a little brash. It doesn’t any more.

City may still have some problems to address on the road but what is beyond dispute is that Pellegrini has at his disposal the most gifted and, crucially, the deepest squad in the country. After this haughty dismissal of a lamentable Spurs challenge, few would argue that they do not remain favourites for their second Premier League title in three years.

Let’s not be mistaken. Spurs were abysmal on Sunday. Their own reserve team would have beaten them and, as he adjusts to life without Gareth Bale, it is clear that coach Andre Villas Boas has some very real problems to address if this season isn’t to fizzle out before Christmas. Nevertheless, City’s appetite for goals was insatiable. They scored six and could have scored more. Before the game, Pellegrini wrote in the programme that City had scored three, five and seven in their previous three home games.

‘I am pretty sure that we will not be able to continue that sequence,’ he wrote.

It’s been a while since any Premier league team has scored nine times. The last time was when Tottenham themselves beat Wigan 9-1 four years ago. Could it have happened again here yesterday? With City five goals to the good with 35 minutes left anything looked possible.

As it was, City made do with six. As they did when leading Manchester United 4-0 early in the second half at the Etihad back in September, City eased off a little. YaYa Toure swept a shot over from 18 yards, the formidable Alvaro Negredo headed above the bar from six yards and Fernandinho somehow contributed an air shot from even closer in.

Certainly there were chances for City to turn Tottenham’s embarrassment in to complete humiliation. As it is Villas Boas said only that his team should be ashamed. It was an assessment as honest as it was accurate. But let us revel in City’s majesty. It is only right. They may travel badly — Cardiff, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Sunderland have all beaten them — but in east Manchester they remain irresistible and it always helps when you score within fifteen seconds.

Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris — playing his first club game since his concussion at Everton at the start of the month — provided the key assist, hacking a clearance straight to Sergio Aguero.

The French international perhaps thought he had atoned for that by saving the subsequent shot but City’s Spanish winger Jesus Navas swept in to provide a sublime first time finish over the goalkeeper’s head and in to the far corner. City — who had spent two long weeks reflecting on defeat at Sunderland — could not have wished for a better opening. Only one top flight goal this season has been scored quicker and that came from a goalkeeper, Stoke’s Asmir Begovic.

Tottenham actually responded quite well to the setback and for a while enjoyed a decent spell of possession. Erik Lamela – the worst player on the field by some distance – wasted a good chance at the far post in the fifth minute before Jan Vertonghen drove a free-kick straight at Costel Pantilimon and Roberto Soldado broke purposefully only to drag a right-foot effort across goal and wide.

Once City scored their second in the 34th minute, however, Tottenham ceased to be a force in the game. Again Lloris erred, clearing straight to Fernandinho, and when he saved from Aguero a combination of Younes Kaboul and Sandro could only divert Negredo’s follow-up in to the goal.

In the dug out, Villas-Boas wore the look of a man who perhaps wished he had spent the weekend cleaning out his shed. It was hard to blame him. Anything that could go wrong was going wrong, an impression that deepened when Sandro began to bring him up his pre-match meal in the centre circle.

The Brazilian soon recovered but Tottenham did not. Lamela — who remarkably cost £30m — chose not to track a Navas run down the right just before half-time and Aguero’s movement in the penalty area enabled him to side foot the third goal in from six yards when the cross arrived on his doorstep.

At half-time, Villas-Boas chose to put the dreadful Lewis Haltby out of his misery and sent on former City striker Emmanuel Adebayor. Heaven knows what Jermaine Defoe must do to get a game.

Nothing changed, though. City continued to ease forwards relentlessly and scored two terrific goals before the hour as Negredo and Toure combined to set up Aguero and then Negredo himself turned beautifully away from Michael Dawson to spank a terrific shot past Lloris from the edge of the area.

Still there was time for the improving Samir Nasri to strike the bar with an audacious chip and for Navas to score the sixth in injury time. James Milner’s cross field pass was lovely but Vertonghen should have cut it out. That the Belgian didn’t do it rather summed up Tottenham’s afternoon just as Navas’s composed finish pretty much reflected City’s.

A pivotal afternoon in the season, then? Or just one of those days? Time will tell but City will kick themselves if it doesn’t signal the start of a winter assault on the Premier League summit.

—Daily Mail