United eye top four return

With four straight wins in the Premier League, Manchester United are on track for a return to the Champions League as the team goes from strength to strength under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Meanwhile, the man he replaced at Old Trafford, Jose Mourinho, just cannot get Tottenham going.

While United romped to a 3-0 victory at Aston Villa yesterday, Spurs couldn’t even muster a shot on target against the most porous defence since the Premier League restarted last month. The 0-0 draw at Bournemouth ranked as arguably the worst game since the resumption of the English top flight.

“The performance was not good enough,” Mourinho said.

The contrast to United’s latest exciting display couldn’t have been starker. Portuguese playmaker Bruno Fernandes scored again — a penalty, contentiously awarded, for his seventh goal in 10 games since joining in January — and teenage striker Mason Greenwood powered home his fourth goal in the last three games.

Paul Pogba added the third in the second half with his first goal of an injury-affected season.

United stayed fifth but moved within a point of fourth-placed Leicester City.

Tottenham, Champions League finalists last season, can forget about playing in Europe’s elite competition next season and might not even make the second-tier Europa League.

Bournemouth faced no shots on target in a game for the first time since promotion to the Premier League in 2015. Tottenham were fortunate to escape with a point, with Callum Wilson’s goal from an overhead kick in the 90th minute ruled out after the VAR spotted the ball grazing the arm of fellow forward Josh King on its way into the net.