If Sven-Göran Eriksson had been in Stuart Pearce’s shoes yesterday, the former England head coach might have described Manchester City’s showing as “first half bad, second half good”. This was a Jekyll and Hyde performance, and as despondent home supporters filed out of the City of Manchester Stadium to the tune of Chris Rea’s Driving Home For Christmas, a little consistency over the festive period would probably be their foremost wish.

City had only conceded one goal during an eight-game unbeaten sequence at home going into this match, but, for the first 45 minutes at least, appeared determined to let Tottenham Hotspur run up a cricket score. Haphazard defending, even poorer passing and a masterclass in anonymity from Georgios Samaras, the striker, allowed Tottenham the freedom to do as they pleased.

How City trailed only 2-0 at the interval, when they exited to a chorus of boos, was a mystery, but having failed to put the game to bed, Tottenham were forced to endure a nervy final 25 minutes when Joey Barton pulled a goal back, sidefooting home Paul Dickov’s cross on the volley. It might have ended all square had Barton not been denied a penalty five minutes from time when he was clumsily upended by Steed Malbranque.

Handing teams a lead, as Pearce admitted, is “unacceptable” in the Barclays Premiership, however, and the City manager had sympathy for the fan who was carted away by police after attempting to clamber over a fence behind the technical area shortly after Tottenham scored their second goal, presumably to castigate Pearce and his players.

“People pay good money and they can vent their feeling,” Pearce said. “I was frustrated and if I was a supporter I would have vented my frustration. That performance was unacceptable as a collective in the first half, but credit to the players, they rolled their sleeves up in the second half when it would have been easy to go under.”

Tottenham were two goals to the good inside 24 minutes, although the visiting team would have been out of sight had Sylvain Distin not cleared Dimitar Berbatov’s shot off the line. Tottenham, ultimately, had Tom Huddlestone to thank for a sixth victory in seven matches in all competitions and their first away win of the season.

The 19-year-old midfield player planted a perfect free kick on to the head of Calum Davenport to nod Tottenham in front and thrashed home a half-volley from Hossam Ghaly’s pass that was worthy of winning any game.