Tottenham ace Ryan Mason had a game to forget in Manchester City defeat

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Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Ryan Mason was extremely ineffective on Sunday.

Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Ryan Mason has had a superb season in his breakthrough Premier League campaign at White Hart Lane.

Previously loaned out at Swindon Town, the 23-year-old was handed his chance by boss Mauricio Pochettino and established himself in the first-team, subsequently winning an England cap in March.

However, his performances in recent weeks have dropped off somewhat and on Sunday he struggled to get going as Manchester City dominated the middle third of the pitch.

As per the table provided by Opta Stats, Mason failed to get a foothold in the match, recording very few noteworthy contributions and unsurprisingly was hauled off midway through the second half.

Playing alongside the busy Nabil Bentaleb, the Spurs academy product registered just one defensive duel winner, one effective clearance and one turnover in the middle of the pitch.

Moreover, he failed to win a clean tackle during his 70 minutes on the pitch and proved rather wasteful in possession, completing 40 accurate passes with only 13 going in a forward direction.

Argentine international striker Sergio Aguero scored the only goal of the game, linking up well with David Silva before sweeping a wonderful effort high past Hugo Lloris in the Spurs net.

The hosts had chances to equalise in an otherwise decent display, but they weren’t clinical enough with Mason hesitating when alone in front of goal following an excellent diagonal ball from Harry Kane.

The young midfielder has been a real highlight of the North Londoners’ campaign, but Sunday’s display should be seen as a learning curve and his challenge now is to quickly put it behind him.