JOSE’S MIDAS TOUCH
Martial’s winner gives Mourinho the last laugh on boo boys
JOSE MOURINHO proved he is the man with the Midas touch as he went against the home fans’ wishes to win this heavyweight showdown.
But for Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino, his own talisman Harry Kane can’t come back quick enough as his side’s cutting edge let them down in a match in which they were superior in terms of football.
Dogged United, stung by Mourinho’s blunt criticism following their horror show at Huddersfield in their last league outing, ground out a much-needed victory.
They had been struggling to stay with Spurs, with their grit evident but an absence of guile.
Mourinho stepped in after 70 minutes to come up with a new plan in search of a winner, only to be booed by some supporters.
They wanted supersub Anthony Martial in the thick of it but not at the expense of Marcus Rashford, who had been United’s major threat, with Romelu Lukaku struggling to get into the game.
But 11 minutes later Mourinho had every reason to be smug as a route-one punt by keeper David De Gea was glanced on by the rejuvenated Lukaku, who’d just hit the post, and Martial steamed in to steer in the winner. But Mourinho had no beef with the fans. He said: “They pay for the ticket, they can do what they want. They can boo a player that doesn’t deserve to be booed, they can boo a player who is working like an animal, even though the game is not going in his direction. “They can boo – they pay for their tickets, they can boo the manager.” For Kane-less Spurs this was not the result they needed ahead of a Champions League showdown with holders Real Madrid on Wednesday at Wembley. Despite all their attractive possession and build up play only Dele Alli, after 78 minutes, got a sniff of a real chance when he poked past De Gea but wide of the post. It was hard not to think that had Kane’s boot nudged the brilliant chipped pass from Christian Eriksen, then Spurs could have been waltzing into the game against Cristiano Ronaldo and Co with a win.
Defender Jan Vertonghen said: “We’re disappointed. They scored during the best period of our game and it is hard for us to take
“But it’s good for us that the games come so quickly. If we win on Wednesday, we are almost certainly through, so our heads wild be on Madrid for now.”
Spurs were hoping to steal a march on United and move into the top two with a win but Martial’s goal wrecked their chances of proving they could hack it at the top.
Fighting
And Pochettino admitted they needed to make a statement with a win at Old Trafford.
He said: “Yes, but before we played Real Madrid it was supposed to be a statement, Liverpool a statement, West Ham and now Manchester United. It looks like it’s always supposed to be a statement for Tottenham if we want to win the Premier League.
“We want to be competitive, we want to be up there. In the last two seasons we were fighting but it was not enough to win the league.
“We have a young team and now the challenge is to put the club in a position where we can win the big trophies every season.”
Big trophies could still depend on Kane being available and the striker’s hamstring injury will be assessed before a decision is made about playing him on Wednesday.