AT SIXES AND SEVENS
United humbled 6-1 at home by Spurs. Then hours later Villa thrash the champions 7-2!
PAUL POGBA went to ground, and lazily slid i nto Ben Davies, upending him for the penalty that would become Tottenham’s sixth. Soon after, Luke Shaw should have been sent off as he failed to keep up with Lucas Moura and hacked him to the ground without a scintilla of ambition to play the ball.
This was one of the great performances by any visiting team at Old Trafford but, make no mistake, by the end Manchester United were shambolic. A rabble, really.
Lacking organisation, resilience, just the simple desire to compete, l et alone win. And everything United lacked Tottenham had in spades. They were quick-witted, energetic, they worked hard, their forwards too hot to handle, their midfield dominant.
Serge Aurier was given the run of the right flank and seemed to make every stride count. So, yes, Spurs were excellent in just about all areas but the team they faced were pitiful.
It is not the first time United have conceded six in the Premier League era but it is perhaps the most worrying. Beaten 6-3 at Southampton in 1996, United were reigning champions and won the league that season, too; United were champions when they lost 6-1 to Manchester City in 2011 and only lost that season’s title on goal difference.
This is a defeat that leaves them 16th and more than seven years from their last domestic title. And while it is preciously early in the season, that is more an argument to support a team losing by the odd goal, or against the run of play — not one that has conceded 11 goals in three games against Crystal Palace, Brighton and Spurs.
The Premier League did not exist in 1986 when United last lost their opening two league fixtures at Old Trafford and the manager, Ron Atkinson, did not make it out of November. There is a lot of goodwill towards Ole Gunnar Solskjaer but since Sir Alex Ferguson left United’s route out of crisis always seems to involve a change of coach. Certainly, this is not a malaise that can be solved by the recruitment of an ageing marquee name such as Edinson Cavani.
Solskjaer boasted United’s recruitment strategy would exploit football’s financial crisis. As the transfer window creaks shut there are a lot of clubs who appear considerably less desperate than the Premier League’s biggest beasts.
True, United were poorly served by Anthony Martial’s sending off on 27 minutes but they looked inferior by that point, anyway. As for Tottenham, that’s 13 goals in two games. So much for dull football under Jose Mourinho. He even permitted himself a little smile when Kane scored his second — and
Tottenham’s sixth — from the spot. To be fair, he had been warning about United’s frailty at the back before leaving Old Trafford.
Ed Woodward probably thought he had solved that by breaking the bank for Harry Maguire. Yet yesterday, as Kane and Son Heungmin danced around a defence that appeared to have been recently introduced, United looked as far from glory as they have ever been since the Ferguson era.
Tottenham simply crushed United’s spirit, bouncing back from an almost instant disadvantage.
It was a crazy start to the game. The first time United had conceded two goals inside seven minutes since losing 3-0 at Arsenal in October 2015; the first time three goals had been scored in that time in a Premier League match since Manchester City at Burnley in 2010;
and the first time teams had shared three such rapid goals since Manchester United visited Nottingham Forest and won 8-1 in February 1999. Solskjaer scored four goals in the last 10 minutes that afternoon. Happy days.
By the time United’s manager got his players back into the dressingroom at half-time yesterday another landmark had been reached. This was the first time in the Premier League era that United had conceded four goals in a first half.
And while Martial’s dismissal may have killed the hopes of a comeback it didn’t alter the direction the game was travelling. United were all over the place, an accident waiting to happen at the back where players who have been expensively recruited were turning in performances of staggering ineptitude. Maguire, in particular, looked in better form during his last night out in Mykonos.
And yet United got off to a perfect start. There were 33 seconds gone when Davinson Sanchez made a dreadfully clumsy tackle on Martial, sending United’s striker sprawling. Anthony Taylor gave the penalty and the scoreboard operator might as well have attached the 1 in that moment.
Bruno Fernandes doesn’t miss and he didn’t here. The little skip deceived Hugo Lloris, who went the wrong way as goalkeepers often do trying to read it, and Fernandes tucked it low to the right. Solskjaer broke into a huge grin but his joy barely lasted two minutes. It was all downhill from there.
It is easier to name the United defenders who were not at fault for Tottenham’s equaliser, so here goes: Aaron Wan-Bissaka. The rest all contributed, some more than once. Maguire and central defensive partner Eric Bailly had four headers any of which could have cleared the ball, all of which somehow dragged their team into greater trouble. They were like a particularly inept troupe of performing seals. By the time they had juggled it back in front of goal,
Shaw proved powerless resisting Erik Lamela, and the ball ran loose to Tanguy Ndombele, arriving late to thrash one past David de Gea.
Already, Tottenham looked sharper and mentally livelier. In the seventh minute, Maguire fouled Kane. The England captain sprung up, placed the ball and played the pass of the game to Son, catching United’s back line utterly unaware.
Bailly gave fruitless chase and Son finished sweetly, releasing the ball and wheeling away out of physical danger as De Gea and Shaw collided. That was Kane’s sixth assist in the Premier League this season. He is so much more than just a goalscorer.
United’s hopes of recovery were then all but ended by Lamela’s skulduggery and Martial’s foolishness. It was a Tottenham corner, Martial marking Lamela. If anything the Tottenham man initiated contact. He leant into Martial, a little barge, and then appeared to put an arm in his face. Not an elbow. Nothing physically harmful but clearly designed to incite. Martial responded by brushing Lamela’s face, not even a push away, but the Argentine clutched a supposed injury and then, opportunistically seizing the moment, fell to the floor. Taylor bought it. So, shamefully, did VAR.
Martial was wrong but yellow card wrong, not red. And if he was red card wrong, so too was Lamela. Equal punishment was deserved. Instead only Martial made his way down the tunnel. And that was United done.
Within three minutes Tottenham increased their lead. De Gea gave the ball to Bailly, who must have been brimming with confidence after recent events, and trying to play out from deep inside his penalty area, his pass to Nemanja Matic was cut out by Kane. He fed it to Son, turned and received a square pass back, shooting low past De Gea.
By now, everybody wanted in on the act, not least Aurier, returned to the side. He was given vast space to exploit on the ri ght f l ank and responded by picking out Son for his second goal at the near post.
Six minutes into the second half Aurier was fed by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and this time did the job himself, a lovely shot across De Gea. Of course, it helped that Pogba didn’t even bother tracking his man but by then United were already lost.