19 August 2023 , 19:43
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The best teams find a way to win even when they don’t play well.
That was the narrative trotted out at the start of last week after Manchester United, aided of course by some dubious officiating, took all three points off Wolves. But here at Tottenham they played all right and found a way to lose — something that, even at this early stage of the season, will have their manager and fans alike worrying.
To be fair to both United and their hosts, this was a cracking, vibrant game. There were moments of great collective and individual skill at either end, and both sides will know they could and should have scored more goals than they did.
But where Manchester City and, to a degree, Arsenal as well produce such cold-blooded and calculated football, football that is drilled into them on the training ground, there were times when this game swung so rapidly from end to end that it often felt like a Sunday league game might.
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That isn’t to liken any of these players to park players, of course. It’s just that there was the kind of fun element about the fixture that you just won’t get at the Etihad or Emirates anytime soon.
And it’s why, even at a stage of the season when serious predictions shouldn’t be made, no one will have left this stadium thinking either of these two sides can seriously mount a challenge for the title and that they will both have to tighten up plenty if they are even going to finish in the top four.
Pape Sarr of Tottenham celebrates scoring the opening goal (Chloe Knott - Danehouse/Getty Images)That’s okay when you’re a Tottenham side that’s bouncing back from a miserable time of it. A side with their new boss, Ange Postecoglou, only a couple of months in to the job.
But Ten Hag has been at United long enough now for his team not to be producing performances like this. It is a United team that still needs serious work and only new keeper Andre Onana really looked anything like for the whole game.
Onana has a huge presence, good hands and good feet. He cut through three Spurs players with one pass to Anthony and a long ball to Alejandro Garnacho was pinged with pinpoint accuracy. He’s clearly some signing. The trouble is, up ahead of him, it was just too easy for Tottenham to turn defence into attack.
Former United skipper Roy Keane had talked in the build-up about United’s front three and midfield three not defending well enough against Wolves. And as well as they moved the ball forward in the first half, nor did they defend well enough for 99 minutes here, which proved their undoing.
In fact, United looked one-dimensional for chunks of this game, as if there was no Plan B. And even when Ten Hag sent the subs on, it was just a different mix of players doing the same thing.
Erik ten Hag watches on as his side fell to a disappointing defeat (ANDY RAIN/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)They’d had chances with Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford heading over. Fernandes’s in particular was a dreadful effort when well placed.
But as well as he played going forward, he struggled going backwards, while Mason Mount again struggled to impose himself on the game.
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Mount needs time to settle and the pile-on he’s getting already is unfair. When you join United, no matter what the fee, the least you can expect is 10 players performing around you to aid the settling-in process and Mount just isn’t getting that.
As for Spurs, Postecoglou promised the shackles would be off and already he has done just that. Yves Bissouma out-Casemiro’d Casemiro with an excellent display that gave license to those ahead of him to do their thing.
Right-back Pedro Porro was unlucky not to score when he rattled the woodwork and Pape Sarr’s cross in the same attack deflected off Luke Shaw on to a post.
Soon after the break, Sarr slammed Spurs ahead and when Lisandro Martinez turned the ball past Onana, it was game over. No wonder Spurs players and fans celebrated wildly at the end.
They’ve already moved on from Antonio Conte and already the Harry Kane hangover appears to have cleared.