De Gea stands tall for United
Spanish stopper building case as club’s ‘greatest ever’
LONDON — Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said David de Gea was making a case to be considered Manchester United’s greatest-ever goalkeeper after he produced a masterpiece on Sunday to protect a 1-0 lead against Tottenham.
The match at Wembley pitted two of the bookmakers’ favorites to permanently replace Jose Mourinho against one another, but it was the interim United boss who came out on top against Mauricio Pochettino.
Marcus Rashford scored the only goal in the 44th minute of a thrilling encounter and Paul Pogba impressed — but the performance of the Spanish goalkeeper will live long in the memory of all who saw it.
De Gea made 11 saves — the most he has made in a top-flight league match without conceding a goal — leaving Spurs players repeatedly holding their heads in disbelief.
Solskjaer hailed De Gea as “the best goalkeeper in the world” but also praised his team’s defensive resilience and team spirit.
“We’ve had some great ’keepers at this club and I think he’s challenging both Edwin (van der Sar) and Peter (Schmeichel) for the number one spot historically, he said.
“The win here was massive, the team spirit was massive, the belief and joy in the dressing room absolutely fantastic,” added the Norwegian, who has matched Matt Busby’s record of winning his first five league games for United.
United was eight points behind Arsenal when Solskjaer took the reins on Dec 19 but is now tied with the fifth-place Gunners in the battle for a Champions League qualification spot. Chelsea occupies the final CL berth in fourth, six points ahead of Arsenal and United.
Sunday’s result was a major blow to Tottenham’s chances of making it a three-horse Premier League title race, with third-place Spurs nine points adrift of leader Liverpool.
However, Pochettino praised his side despite the loss.
“Tottenham did everything to win the game,” he said. “Maybe we dominated and we created a lot of chances. It was an amazing second half, I am so pleased.
“Sometimes you win a game and you are disappointed, like when we won 3-0 at Old Trafford. They were better than us that day. Today the result should be different, and I am happy.”
Tottenham settled quickly into its fluid passing game, enjoying the bulk of possession and went close to opening the scoring through Harry Winks before Jesse Lingard fired over from close range for the visitor.
United, with Lingard, Anthony Martial and Rashford racing forward at every opportunity, looked dangerous on the break.
Spurs striker Harry Kane had a close-range effort correctly ruled out for offside just after the half hour.
Moussa Sissoko pulled up sharply shortly before the break and limped off the pitch. He returned minutes later, but was unable to continue and was replaced by Erik Lamela.
Then it was United’s turn to strike.
Lingard cut out a careless Kieran Trippier cross-field pass and nudged the ball to Pogba, who measured a superb raking throughball worthy of his $114 million transfer fee to the on-rushing Rashford.
England international Rashford still had plenty to do but kept his nerve to rifle right-footed past Lloris and into the far corner.
Tottenham came out of the blocks smartly after the break and Kane looked certain to level from close range, but De Gea saved brilliantly with his left foot before pulling off a fine save to deny Alli’s headed effort.
At the other end, Ashley Young sent over an inviting cross that Pogba headed straight at Lloris and the Spurs goalkeeper had to be alert to tip over another Pogba effort that came at the end of a long spell of United possession.
Spurs, roared on by a passionate home crowd, were building up a head of steam and Alli had another golden chance to equalize but De Gea was again equal to the task.
The Spaniard produced yet another stunning save to thwart Toby Alderweireld before flying to his right to snare a Kane freekick.
Spurs had further chances in a frenetic final two minutes but could find no way past the inspired De Gea.
Kane took a knock in the closing seconds of the match, with Pochettino saying the injury would be assessed over the next few days.