TOTTENHAM 2, MANCHESTER UNITED 0
With Manchester City racing off into the horizon with the league this season the race for the top four took a twist at Wembley after Manchester United went down to a poor defeat against Tottenham Hotspur in front of a record Premier League crowd of 81,978.
A goal from the kick-off by Christian Eriksen and an own goal by Phil Jones deflated the Reds who couldn’t prevent wave after wave of Spurs attacks despite testing Hugo Lloris in the Spurs goal themselves although less effectively.
New Reds signing Alexis Sanchez – the only player to retain his place from the side that beat Yeovil Town in the FA Cup last Friday – made his Premier League debut for United playing on the left of three attacking players behind Romelu Lukaku, with Anthony Martial filling the problem right flank.
Six consecutive clean sheets for United were undone after just 11 seconds as Spurs raced into the lead with a pre-arranged kick off routine involving a launched ball from deep in Spurs territory with Harry Kane flicking on, Dele Alli cutting it back, and a placed finish from Christian Eriksen.
It was fast but not quite fast enough to beat Ledley King’s record for fastest goal in Premier League history.
Phil Jones and Chris Smalling were at fault for the failure to stop the Spurs training ground exercise – one that fuming Reds boss Jose Mourinho hinted had been shown to the team during their preparation.
United pushed back immediately and Jesse Lingard got on the end of Paul Pobga’s probing pass into the area but couldn’t compose himself for a shot on goal.
Kane tested David De Gea after Eriksen found him but the Spaniard was soon beaten by his own defender when Phil Jones diverted Kieran Trippier’s cross into his own net on 28 minutes.
It was a neat finish from the United defender but clearly he and the rest of the defence was not given sufficient protection by his more attacking team mates who could not hold back the Spurs build-up.
Hugo Lloris saved brilliantly from Anthony Martial while Pogba blazed over the bar and Lukaku had a good shot saved by the Frenchman while Son Heung-Min could have also broken the deadlock in a thrilling early exchange that also contained penalty drama for both sides.
Dele Alli was brought down by Antonio Valencia but surprisingly no penalty was given but Son’s possible handball meant that the honours were even on the suspect penalties not given front.
Sanchez was on the receiving end of some predictably harsh treatment from the Spurs fans during the game and proved as ineffectual as his team mates as Jose Mourinho decided to substitute Pogba for not helping out with his defensive duties.
The humiliation on the night was complete when Mourinho made a double change in the second half, with Marouane Fellaini and Juan Mata were thrown on for Pogba and Lingard in the second half only for Fellaini to sustain an injury within a minute of coming on and have to be replaced within seven minutes of his entrance with Ander Hererra.
Herrera was the kind of player who perhaps should have been on from the start as United went too attacking and paid the price for trying to take on Spurs and failing as a team to rise to the challenge of Mauricio Pochettino’s men.
Defeat in London helped 5th placed Spurs open a 6 point gap on 6th placed Arsenal and close within 2 points of Chelsea in 4th.
United remained second but finished January a whopping 15 points behind rivals City who again only need 8 wins to lift the title – which could happen as soon as the Manchester derby in April.