Mancashter United (Away) 29.09.2024

With both teams loose in their passing in the first few minutes, it was Spurs who held the territorial advantage, but United looked to break away with a ball aimed in front of Rashford.  However, after a heavy touch by the England forward, Micky van de Ven stepped in to intercept the pass 15 yards outside his own box and then launched off on a run that took him past five United players to the dead ball line at the other end to pull a square ball across the six-yard box for Brennan Johnson to put the ball into the gaping net with just two and a half minutes gone. It was another run forward by van de Ven that left United players standing and it was a really composed cross to provide Brennan with his fourth goal in four games.

Pressing high up the pitch, Maddison won the ball outside the United box, but when he passed to Dominic Solanke, the striker was crowded out. It was in the tenth minute United broke past the Spurs high line, as Rashford forced Vicario to save at his near post, but the offside flag went up after the save. Saving at the other end was Onana after Maddison played the ball into Kulusevski and the  Swede’s back-heel sent James into the box, ending with a shot that hit Onana on the shoulder.  Udogie then fired over from inside the area and then it was another six minutes before Tottenham’s next shot when Destiny broke forward on the left and then moved the ball through Dejan Kulusevski to Johnson inside the box on the right and he drove his trademark low shot towards the far corner, but this time the ball bounced out off the base of the post.

United’s first effort on target came in the 22nd minute with Zirkzee putting a left-foot shot on target, but Guglielmo stretched out a right hand as he dived to the ground to stop it and then gather the ball in. It was another Spurs low ball into the goalmouth from Johnson that brought a well-read clearance by Mazraoui, who had Werner waiting behind him. Spurs won the ball on the edge of the United area when Dalot hit it against Kulusevski and Maddison shot into the middle of the goal, but Onana was right behind it.

All you could hear was the singing from the Spurs fans as the only chance that they were going to be drowned out was by the groans of the prawn sandwich brigade.  Another good exchange between Werner and Udogie won a corner which went long and Solanke headed it back for Johnson to cross to Cristian Romero who performed a scissor-kick volley that just went a yard wide. It was another Argentine volley that was the next incident in the game when a long left-wing cross found Garnacho in space at the far post and he crashed a shot against the post.

Spurs then broke when Kulusevski prodded the ball over halfway for Werner to run through unchallenged, but a heavy touch allowed Onana to come out to smother the final shot. Dalot fouled Kulusevski to take a yellow card to stop him from getting away and from the free-kick Micky and Johnson had shots blocked and from the corner, the ball stayed around the United area. When Mancashter did move the ball forward, van de Ven picked it off and played it short to Maddison, who turned away and was brought down by a cynical, high set of studs in the Spurs midfielder’s shin.  Fernandes argued that it wasn’t a red, but the referee was sure that that sort of challenge has no place in the game and amazingly the United captain received his first dismissal since arriving at Gold Trafford. It was a long time coming and hard to think that referees have let him get away with the way he goes about the game without working him out.

Brennan Johnson was shoved over and held onto the ball, earning a yellow card that brought the biggest cheer of the afternoon from the home support. If they hadn’t lost their discipline before, United were racking up the yellow cards, but with Tottenham dominating and now playing against ten men, there was still only one goal in it.

Half-time changes saw United swap Zirkzee for Casemiro, while Destiny Udogie had gone off after taking a knock in the first half with Djed Spence coming on to replace him.  It was another fast start to the half by Tottenham. A high ball forward by Romero was won by Solanke, who headed it wide for Johnson to run into acres of space down the right wing and it looked as though he had pushed it a little too far, with de Ligt coming across to challenge. However, the ball popped up off the Dutchman and Kulusevksi was in space in front of goal to guide the ball past Onana on the volley with the outside of his left foot. 2-0 just two minutes into the second half and if ever a goal came at the right time, this was it.

Djed Spence was worrying the right side of the United defence and one run into the box ended with him being knocked to the ground by Mazraoui, but the referee rightly saw that he played the ball first. Djed then got booked for a handball and Martinez flew into Maddison with a late tackle that only warranted a yellow card according to the ref. Anyone could see what the United defender was trying to do, but not the referee apparently.

When Kulusevski put Werner in behind Mazraoui, Onana made a low stop to his left and then blocked Solanke’s follow-up. United’s fans were screaming for penalty after penalty for handball but VAR failed to agree with their tainted view. Martinez put the ball wide from 12 yards out following one of the penalty claims, as United had a little bit of pressure that caused their supporters to find their voice. Casemiro headed wide from a corner in the 64th minute, as Spurs were playing the ball longer and it kept coming back.

Ugarte became the latest United name in the book when he barged over Dejan from behind. United went close in the 69th minute when a ball over the Spurs defence picked out Casemiro, who guided a half-volley just wide of Vicario’s right-hand post from the other side of the goal. Werner the Burner ran the ball out from the Tottenham half, but when he got level with the penalty area, his pull-back bisected Maddison and Solanke to gift United possession. These were chances that we needed to be taking.

With a quarter of an hour left, Ange switched Johnson, Werner and Maddison for Bergvall, Moore and Pape Matar Sarr.  It worked immediately as Sarr glanced on a header on from Bergvall’s corner and Dominic ran through the static red shirts in the six yard box to force the ball over the line with the sole of his boot as it started to rain and the goals kept raining in for Tottenham.

At this point the red plastic of empty seats was clearly visible around the United parts of the decrepit stadium. Micky van de Ven made way with Radu Dragusin being given the opportunity to redeem himself after his red card on Thursday. His first play was to attack a header that knocked Mason Mount over, leaving him bloodied and needing to go off.

Spurs really should have rammed home their advantage and when Solanke ghosted in behind the home defence to get one-on-one with Onana, but his shot was stopped by the keeper and the ball went up for Pape to run onto and head, but he put it just wide. United had a last hurrah when de Ligt nudged a shot to a low ball in, but it was wide of the near post. Mikey Moore tired a curler when he came in from the left, but it went a yard wide and as the final whistle blew, it was to almost silence apart from all the noise in the Spurs corner. The few remaining United fans saved their wrath for the referee for some reason, either because they are so used to the pathetic performances that they are apathetic about the team or they seem to think that ten Hag is some kind of saviour who will motivate this group of over-paid under-performing prima donnas. Either way, there looks little hope with the management group hovering over the rotting corpse of the club just waiting to pick the bones out of what remains.

Whatever argument that was put up for Fernandes’ challenge not being a red card, it was similar to Beckham’s for England against Argentina in the World Cup 1998.  Apologists for the United captain need to get some perspective as he flies around the pitch and is often reckless in his tackles. And let’s face it, he wasn’t that great before he got sent off.

There was a spell of pressure from the home side for about fifteen minutes from the hour mark when they were down to ten men, but they didn’t really produce much threat on the Tottenham goal.

Amongst the misery of the disloyal home support there was unbridled joy in the men with the white shirts and those who follow them around the country. Today was a very good day.

Here’s to many more.

The Heathrow Spur

• This was the 200th meeting between the two sides in all competitions.
• Tottenham recorded a club Premier League high of 4.95xG in this match.
• Dejan Kulusevski’s goal was Tottenham’s 1,900th in the Premier League.