Match recap: Tottenham Hotspur fall to Manchester United

The match could have ended with either club winning but Manchester United struck first and held on to the lead over Tottenham. One goal was enough separate the sides and a few key players showed how important they were.

Tottenham came out firing in the first half. Much of the attack was through Kane. It looked promising near the beginning of the match as Trippier made a tasty cross into the box for Kane, which didn’t produce anything. Later, Kane got a good shot off that was blocked by De Gea.

As unlikely as it seemed, a few shots came from Winks early on. He got the ball at the edge of the box but blasted it over the bar and made another over-powered shot from way out of the box. Eriksen and Son made much more threatening shots but the seemingly superhuman De Gea was always there to stop them. Even so, Tottenham seemed in control for most of the half.

Every dangerous United attack was through Pogba and this resulted in promising shots from Lingard and Martial. The World Cup winning Lloris performed very well throughout the match. All things considered, Spurs had the upper hand for most of the first half.

It was obvious that De Gea was by far the most important player for United on Sunday. Near halftime, it became just as obvious who held that title for Tottenham.

As the match came to the 39th minute, Sissoko was racing Shaw for the ball. To the horror of Spurs fans everywhere, he went down with a cramp. After trying to walk it off, Sissoko went down once again and was taken off for Lamela in the 43rd minute. This change was where the game was lost.

With a strong defensive midfielder no longer there, Trippier was eaten alive by Pogba. In the exact minute following Sissoko’s subbing off, Pogba stole the ball and was able to find Rashford who scored.

In the second half, Spurs put on an absolute shooting gallery. Unfortunately, De Gea was in the form of his life and seemed like he could foresee exactly where every player was going to shoot. Attempts by Alli and Kane that would have put Spurs up 2 or 3 were stopped by the only keeper that could do the job. De Gea’s performance could be summed up in one word- ridiculous.

Tottenham managed to get off 23 shots- many of which were placed exquisitely. Perhaps their best shot was when Eriksen found Alderweireld at the side post and Alderweireld got a perfect touch on it. Again, De Gea was there to reject the attempt.

The match ended Tottenham 0-1 Manchester United but it could have gone very differently. Tottenham are still in 3rd place while United also keep their position at 6th place.