Tottenham Hotspur won the crisis duel with Manchester United. The winning goal came early on, with no more in a fast-paced game. This was also due to Mathys Tel.
Tottenham, 14th in the table, received the even more prominent 13th in the table, Manchester United, after two shattered title dreams in the cup competitions – but it didn’t necessarily look like a crisis duel in London.
Especially not on the part of the Spurs, who started much more actively, which they should remain for the time being. Nevertheless, the first chance went to the lurking United – it was a triple chance: Höjlund and Garnacho failed against Vicario in the Spurs goal, then Davies blocked against Dalot (10th).
Maddison scores off the line
An exceptional moment, otherwise little came out of the game from the passive Red Devils. Although there was little to suggest that Maddison’s goal on the opposite side a little later was going to be scored, it was still deserved given the amount of play time they had (13′). Overall, the home side simply put in more effort.
The Red Devils had a good spell before half-time. They made several high ball gains, and after one of them, Garnacho had a huge chance to equalize. But the youngster shot the ball into the clouds (23′). Shortly after, Tottenham – with center forward Tel – dictated the game again. Manchester never had that kind of control.
In the second section, this also applied to Tottenham. At first, everything seemed to continue as before, but from around the 55th minute, a rapid interplay developed. A good, relatively compelling phase by one team was always followed by a good, relatively compelling phase by the other.
Tel does not look happy
So it seemed like anything was possible, but neither team could find the back of the net. Garnacho twice failed to beat the in-form Vicario (55′, 58′), while Tel was repeatedly allowed to take shots on the counterattack. From all sorts of positions and situations, but never really well.
United had an equal footing in the second half, keeping up with the increasingly wild back and forth. Because Zirkzee failed to get a promising header on target (72nd), time was gradually running out in what was now an entertaining game.
In the final phase, both teams were unable to create any more good chances, so a potential four-goal game had no further goals to offer. Tottenham thus moved a little further into the no-man’s-land of the table in terms of points – while United even slipped to 15th place.
