Manchester City 2 Tottenham Hotspur 1: Keane blows his top as City keep hopes of Europe alive

Thaksin Shinawatra and Ricky Hatton were the odd couple in east Manchester yesterday; together on the pitch before this match for reasons not abundantly clear but which doubtless included reminding the City faithful that their side are punching more weight with the man just back from Bangkok at their arm.

The events about to unfold showed City to be anything but "Hitmen". This win was as much about Spurs' implosion, compounded by the captain Robbie Keane's disgruntlement when called from the field, as anything else.

And when Sven Goran Eriksson sits down to talk cash with Thaksin today, he might suggest that something more heavyweight is required in the on-field department. It is a significant week for the Swede, who said: "It is important for the club and me to sit down with [Thaksin]. We've got a lot to discuss. It's important to draw the lines on where we want to go."

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In the short term, the answer might just be Europe – via the InterToto Cup. Eighth-placed City are two points off sixth, which they must reach for qualification, though Eriksson was being pragmatic. "If we'd lost today, Europe would have been very, very far away," he said. "Now it's only far away."

The remotest hope will do, though, considering that this clash had a real end-of-season feel about it. The new advertising hoardings outside City's ground read "Boom", "Gasp" and "Zoom"; not a description of the team's offerings but of the alternative attractions – world squash, swimming and cycling championships – that lie ahead.

The first half suggested that the locals are, indeed, best forgetting their football. What little Eriksson's side created was high on intricacy but low on potency and, with Dietmar Hamann suspended, Spurs' goal just after the half-hour revealed the defensive brittleness of a side who had won one league game in seven and had not won here since 15 December, despite winning their first nine at home.

Vedran Corluka's semi-detached approach to a crossfield pass into Pascal Chimbonda's path allowed the Frenchman to skip past him and deliver a precise ball into the left channel for Keane, who raced ahead of Richard Dunne and had the ball in off Joe Hart's left post for a 21st goal of the season before Nedum Onuoha could place a challenge.

When City did threaten, the Mexican Nery Castillo suggested he does not quite have a right foot to match his impressive pace, as two chances went begging. When City did equalise there was controversy – Elano heading on a miskick from Castillo across goal into the path of Stephen Ireland who, retreating from an offside position, poked out a foot to score – though Eriksson saw it as a moment of reckoning after Spurs' dubious goals in the White Hart Lane game, during which Ireland was dismissed, earlier in the season.

The goal presaged a collapse for Spurs, who plumbed the depths after Keane's colourful exit. The Irishman, seeing his number raised for the seventh time in eight matches, shook his head as he unwillingly handed up the captain's armband and threw his tracksuit top on to the floor of the dugout. Considering how much more he had offered than Dimitar Berbatov, he seemed to have his reasons. His manager, Juande Ramos, made light of this – "it's normal players want to play", he insisted – but his steely stare as Keane departed suggested they might have words.

It unsettled Spurs, who were behind within five minutes when Onuoha arrived in time to meet a right-footed corner from Elano and dispatch a firm header after Chimbonda, whose ball it should have been, inexplicably ducked. Spurs had a glimmer of hope when Jamie O'Hara's cross from the right was nudged by Onuoha into the path of Darren Bent, who had the ball in the net. But the referee ruled that Berbatov was offside, when he did not seem to have interfered with play, which rather summed up Spurs' afternoon.

City fans were chanting Thaksin's name before the end and Eriksson purred that "it's good to win when he's back". A £50m kitty and Thierry Henry at Eastlands? There was certainly no better way of making the case.

Goals: Keane (31) 0-1; Ireland (58) 1-1; Onuoha (71) 2-1.

Man City (4-4-2): Hart; Onuoha, Dunne, Corluka, Garrido; Ireland, Fernandes, Johnson, Elano (Caicedo, 75); Castillo (Vassell, 70), Benjani (Jihai, 88). Substitutes not used: Isaksson (gk), Geovanni.

Tottenham (4-4-2): Robinson; Hutton, Woodgate, Dawson, Chimbonda; Lennon (Huddlestone, 45), Jenas, Zakora, Malbranque (O'Hara, 66); Keane (Bent, 66), Berbatov. Substitutes not used: Cerny (gk), Tainio.

Referee: M Clattenburg (Co Durham).

Man of the match: Dunne.

Attendance: 40,180.