Manchester City manager Mark Hughes viciously attacked referee Mike Dean for showing three red cards to his, but the league match between the Citizens and Tottenham was an encounter between two teams heading in opposite directions.

For Manchester City it was the third straight league defeat and the team is only two points ahead of last-placed West Bromwich Albion, although in this season's tight table, a win can lift a club several places the same way a defeat would sink them. And that is what Spurs have done, lifting themselves out of the relegation zone for the first time this year after picking up 10 points from the last four games since the arrival of Harry Redknapp. 

With a brace from Darren Bent - he now has 11 goals to his name this season - cancelled out Robinho's opening goal for Man City and continued Spurs' revival under new boss Redknapp as this victory elevated the Londoners from the bottom of the pit.

The Manchester City manager who went ballistic after the match was not alone and he was fully backed by his opponent on the day, Redknapp.

Both managers were very critical of referee Dean, with Redknapp going on to tell the Tottenham official website: "There wasn't really a bad tackle in the game.

"When you see there were three red cards you'd think the game was a bit of a kick-up, but that wasn't the case. If [Richard] Dunne did bring Bent down when he was through on goal, then I suppose he had to go. But it wasn't a dirty game at all."
 
Life sometimes takes strange twists and in the case with Spurs and City, it looks like both teams are about to make complete U turns. Redknapp's return with Tottenham confirmed the Spurs are on their way out of the crisis, whereas Hughes and City are heading into one.

At the beginning of the season, the blue side of Manchester had a lot to celebrate and feel jovial about. However, the optimism from being taken over by Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour and becoming the richest club in the world has dampened drastically with results poorer that last season and no sight of improvement as of yet - although its only logical for things to be rough at the beginning with leadership of the club.

Man City supporters joked at the beginning of the season immediately after the take over that `even we could not get this wrong now'. Well, a look at the Premier League table shows a club supposedly heading for great things just one point ahead of the previously `doomed' Spurs and a mere point above the drop zone, all thanks to the team not clicking just right, just yet, and of course a little "help" from the referee Mike Dean against Spurs.