After the tight 1-0 win at home to Southampton , City’s attention turned to the Carabao Cup and the 4th round tie at Tottenham. The City squad is quite stretched at the moment with a lot of injuries and I do feel that we need a bit more depth given the increasing number of games. Obviously I love watching the games but it’s going to cause more injuries for sure. It was clear that Pep Guardiola, who does like the Carabao Cup, as do I ,had to deprioritise the event. And if Tottenham really wanted this, a full strength Tottenham team really ought to beat City’s B team.

This of course meant another Cockney odyssey. I’ve been as busy as hell recently and had to make a rushed trip with no clear plan as to where I’d film my food and drink segments. So I combined both and headed off to what’s become my favourite part of London for beer, Bermondsey.

The first port of call was the Kernel taproom, and excellent brewery well known for its cask ales in particular and some keg beers as well. They recently introduced a nitro stout , which was to be honest what dragged me here, although I have enjoyed a number of their other brews in the past.

I quite liked the nitro stout , it is a little heavy on the coffee notes but not as much as other British stouts that I’ve tried. The 80/20 Nitro, CO2 pour really is important though and lends richness and creaminess to the beverage. I was really on the cusp of calling it an absolute creamer , but I think its at the top end of being a creamer, a real creamer though, and I hope to see it at more pubs.

The food menu is quite interesting, Japanese and Korean dishes , many fusion oriented. The short rib Gyozas in a bone marrow gravy(not pictured but in the video) were a bit dry to be honest, but the kimchi and cheese croquettes were excellent, and unusually as stout doesn’t go well with too many foodstuffs, they did actually pair well. Spicy with hot runny cheese, ticked a lot of boxes.

Then it was on to the Arch House,Bermondsey. Nowhere near Tottenham’s stadium but I do go out of my way to drink good beer. I like London Black Porter a hell of a lot but the 80/20 gas and the fact that most customers drink it here so its flowing through the lines makes it unbeatable, I stand by my claim that this pint in this venue is the best pint of stout or porter available in Britain and probably that means anywhere except Ireland.

As always the pint was bang on form, an Absolute Creamer! we possibly had more than we should have done and left it tight for the stadium.

We compound this by ordering a cab to the Tottenham stadium instead of to Liverpool St Station and taking a train. White Hart lane is one of the most awkward stadiums to get to and from I go to every season , and the cab driver, despite me telling him to drop us by the Sainsbury’s at the away end dropped us off where the road had been closed on the way to the home and and left us with a 20 minute walk. For his convenience of course and not ours.

This meant missing the first goal where Tottenham skilfully played through our press and went 1-0 in a sweeping end to end move. City went 2-0 down in the 25th minute after a short corner and a very good curled shot that Ortega seemed to react very slowly to, possibly unsighted.

City , who have a huge injury crisis were dealt injury blows pre match and at half time and during the game when Savinho was stretchered off howling in pain, so it was a big ask to come back from 2-0 down away from home. However Nunes finished well hitting the ball into the ground in the 4th minute of first half injury time to get City back into the game.

For the first time I managed to get a pint at half time at Tottenham , draft lager or tinned Guinness in plastic cups made the lager an easy choice. If you happen to be on the upper tier(s) the service hatches are tiny and it’s not worth the effort.

Being in the lower tier did mean I missed the most wonderful flag!!!

The City team, with many youngsters and debutants playing got the upper hand in the second half , albeit allowing Spurs a couple of dangerous counter attacks , but couldn’t force an equaliser and we lost 2-1. It then took me as long as the match itself, 90 minutes, to get to a pub in Central London, it’s a gorgeous stadium but the location and transport links are awful. One small rail station with a monumental queue or a 30 minute walk to 7 sisters tube.

The Aftermath

I edited the video the next day and read that Guardiola now has 11 senior players plus a couple of youth players integrated into the squad now fully fit, at this rate we will see Ortega in goal and Ederson playing in an outfield role. Bournemouth away will be a tricky task, as will my next game, away at Sporting Lisbon

I did take the opportunity to also review London Black at another establishment using 80/20 gas, the Blue Stoops , in the Notting Hill area London. The first pint tasted quite good but I did get a slightly odd taste at one point. I think that this was because I was the only one on it, and maybe the first pint pulled for a while, but some others and my friends who then arrived started drinking it into form and it was definitely a creamer. Let’s hope a lot of visitors to this pub , which seemed to have a restaurant as well, give London Black a go and keep it in good form.

I will soon finish off my report of the Vigo trip and the damaged suitcase issue, and I’m also so pleased to see so many of you ordering my Cameos on www.cameo.com and ordering merchandise from my shop

I’ll see you all on the next one, and don’t forget, you can’t beat a bit of Mutton!