Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Manchester United

A home win – finally!

It has been a long three and a half months since the Spurs faithful last saw their team win a home Premier League match…a 4-1 home win over Aston Villa on 3rd November 2024 to be precise.

Today was a long awaited victory to mark two successive wins and clean sheets which have steered Spurs away from the bottom of the table up to 12th.

Having already beaten today’s opponents twice this season, may be all Ange had to say before the game was…

Lads it’s only Manchester United!

A week’s rest and the return of five players from injury into the squad saw a more spirited performance as well as greater options from the bench.

It was the returning James Maddison whose early goal and impressive return which proved to be the difference between the two sides. He reacted first to a Bergvall shot which was parried by the ex Ajax keeper to steer into the net.

The only surprise was there weren’t any further goals at either end.

Plenty of chances were created and spurned by both sides with Vicario making some decent saves on his return to first team action.

Ben Davies again played well in defence and Pedro Porro had a much better game.

The star performer though was again Djed Spence who put in some swashbuckling penetrative runs going forwards whilst adopting a thou shalt not pass approach in defence. He is fast becoming one of the first names on the team sheet.

It was a very welcome win but the old expression of the table never lies was very apparent today.

Historically Tottenham Hotspur versus Manchester United has been one of the glamour fixtures on the footballing calendar.

All the way back to the days of Best, Law, Charlton, Greaves, Gilzean and Mackay, it has had that air of anticipation, magic and flair.

Today though, two poor to mediocre sides languishing in the bottom half of the table were pitted together. The absence of quality was noticeable and the teams near the top of the table down to Brighton as low down as tenth, had little to concern them as to the outcome of the result.

How the mighty have fallen and for some the blame belongs with the owners of both clubs.

Yellow and green scarves were seen to represent Manchester United with yellow and black scarves representing some Spurs fans desire for ENIC to sell up. This also led to demonstrations taking place today. I

It is a very sad and toxic state of affairs for these two giants of English football.

On today’s showing, as bad as Spurs are and have been, Manchester United even with a partial change in ownership and a change of manager look to be in a worse mess.

Spurs youngsters offer cause for optimism.

Bergvall had a good first half. Odobert had a good cameo on his return from a long term injury. Gray came on as a substitute and looked his normal assured self. Tel worked hard and made some good runs. His confidence seemed to wane on fluffing his lines in front of goal but he looks a good prospect.

Hopefully as players return, the team can have a tilt at the Europa League which would rescue a desperately disappointing season.

#Coys