Poch shows his class
> From fragile to fierce, how Tottenham changed their story against United
HAVING WATCHED his team kill the match, Mauricio Pochettino was completely unwilling to kill the man. The Argentine just would not engage in any criticism of Jose Mourinho after his side’s 3-0 win. Even when it was put to him the Manchester United manager had said his side were “tactically” and “strategically” superior – something that usually provokes a response from any manager’s sense of pride – Pochettino diplomatically said he might actually agree.
Some of this is undeniably down to the good relationship between the two men – the Spurs boss going so far as to say Mourinho was one of “only a few managers like Marcelo Bielsa… who were so inspirational for me when I started my career” – but it’s similarly difficult to deny that some of it was the manager wanting to remind everyone that this was all about Tottenham Hotspur and their strengths, too.
The scale of the defeat and nature of the night meant that this is obviously primarily a Manchester United story, but it was another important step in the story of this Spurs’ team too.
Mourinho was forced to appeal to history and point to his past titles won because Tottenham had just gone and made history themselves.
It was yet another ceiling smashed by Pochettino (pix) at this club. He claimed his first goals and points at Old Trafford as Spurs boss, and ensured they came away from this stadium – one the club have lost at more times than any other Premier League club has lost at any other way ground in the division since 1992 – with their biggest win since 1963, all while inflicting Mourinho’s biggest ever home defeat in the League.
What a way to break that ceiling, especially since they had been so poor in the first half.
And while Spurs’ sloppiness and the fact they were not punished has rightfully made this even more of a United story, those elements themselves only emphasise why this was so important a performance for Pochettino and his team.
They show why that ceiling was not just broken, but smashed to pieces and stamped on.
Because, for so long in this match, it did seem like this was going to fall into the same old pattern; the same old story.
Although everything seemed to be set up for a Spurs win against a United there to be got at, the visiting side started the match as meekly as they always do at Old Trafford. They were panicky and patternless, the decisions to throw Danny Rose and Toby Alderweireld back into the side particularly mistaken, and the midfield entirely misshapen.
All instead seemed set up for the usual 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford. Not so. This time they rallied.
By way of explaining their previously appalling record at this stadium, Harry Kane had argued that they always seemed to come to Old Trafford when they were in the