Fans remember 'Iheanacho moment' after Son's big miss in Tottenham vs Man City
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Heung Min Son's miss reminds fans of Kelechi Iheanacho || Image credit: Imago

Fans remember 'Iheanacho moment' after Son's big miss in Tottenham vs Man City

Faruq Ibrahim 23:57 - 14.05.2024

Football fans drew parallels between Kelechi Iheanacho's miss for Leicester against Manchester City in the penultimate game of the 2018/19 season and Heung Min Son's miss tonight and how both moments influenced the title race of both campaigns.

Manchester City returned to the top of the Premier League standings with only one game to go after beating Tottenham 2-0. However, they came close to dropping points but were spared by poor finishing from Tottenham's Heung Min Son. 

Pep Guardiola's side now need only one win to clinch the Premier League title, thanks in part to Son’s miss, leading fans to remember a similar scenario from a few seasons ago, when Kelechi Iheanacho’s miss influenced the title race. 

Kelechi Iheanacho's big miss in Leicester vs Manchester City 

The 2018/19 Premier League campaign produced one of the greatest title races of all time, if not the greatest. Manchester City and Liverpool went neck-and-neck until the final day of the season and were separated by a mere point at the end.

The vanquished, Liverpool, amassed a mammoth 97 points, a total enough to win the Premier League in all but three campaigns: the 2017/18 season in which City reached an unprecedented 100 points mark; the 18/19 campaign when Pep Guardiola’s side had one more than Liverpool's 97, 98; and the 2019/20 season when Jurgen Klopp's side fell one short of the century, winning the league with 99 points. 

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In a race as close as the 2018/19 campaign, neither team could afford a slip-up, and in the penultimate game of the season, when Manchester City faced the test of Brendan Rodger’s Leicester City, an Iheanacho intervention could have changed the course of history. 

After Vincent Kompany’s iconic goal around the 70th-minute mark, to send the Mancunians ahead against the stubborn Foxes, Brendan Rodgers shuffled the deck by bringing on Iheanacho in the 80th-minute in place of James Maddison. 

Seven minutes after his introduction, the Super Eagles star was played through on goal by the conspicuously hairstyled Hamza Choudhury, but the Nigeria international missed badly, dragging his effort wide. 

Nigeria's Kelechi Iheanacho (Photo Credit: Leicester City/X)
Nigeria's Kelechi Iheanacho (Photo Credit: Leicester City/X)

Son’s miss reminds social media of the “Iheanacho moment”

In the final game of the season, Manchester City went ahead to drub Brighton 4-1 to win that campaign, pipping Liverpool to the title. 

The deck is shuffled similarly this season, as Tottenham were a potential banana skin in the penultimate game, as Leicester were five seasons ago. 

Manchester City carried an insecure lone goal lead into the dying embers of the game in both matches and had their blushes spared by poor finishes in either. 

Son was the culprit in today's game, as he failed to capitalise on a howler from Manuel Akanji, firing against Stefan Ortega, despite being one-on-one with the German shot-stopper. 

Manchester City went ahead to get a safety goal later in the game to win 2-0, unlike the clash against Leicester, however, like that match, they head into the final match day with their destinies in their hands. 

Fans on social media could not help but draw the obvious similarities between Iheanacho's miss and Son’s in the context of the title race:

Fans remember Kelechi Iheanacho's miss for Leicester against Manchester City after Heung Min Son's miss || Image credit: X (Screenshot)
Fans remember Kelechi Iheanacho's miss for Leicester against Manchester City after Heung Min Son's miss || Image credit: X (Screenshot)

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