Tottenham end an era with new look of steel added to style
The Finale, they called it, the last game ever after 118 years at White Hart Lane, and Tottenham Hotspur went out as Spurs do. How Spurs dare to do – a thrilling performance, a comfortable advantage over Manchester United and then a nervy ending as they allowed their opponents back into it. “Spursy” to the end, then.
Or maybe not. This is a different Spurs – a younger, harder Spurs, a Spurs still for the future as they head to Wembley – without their legs all “trembly” – for one season before returning to their new, 61,000-seat state-of-the-art stadium whose giant footprint will dwarf this one. They will desperately hope to do so with most of this team intact and with their superb young manager, Mauricio Pochettino, in place.
The final Spurs goal, the 5,272th scored in this iconic stadium by them to secure victory No 1,472, came from their most important player: Harry Kane. It came from one of their own and how appropriate that felt; how gloriously that was celebrated by their impressive home-product of a striker. It proved, with United pulling one back, to be decisive also.
There will be no Premier League title to go out on. Chelsea made sure of that and there will be more than a tinge of regret in that. For, as Spurs completed a season unbeaten at the Lane, their last at the Lane, for the first time since 1964-65, they could not bring back the title they last won four years before that.
Spurs are investing off the pitch and need to invest on it also. Now they face that juggling act – having moved from third to second in the league in successive seasons – of the move, the build and keeping the team heading upwards. But they are undoubtedly on the right track, finishing ahead of Arsenal also for the first time since Arsène Wenger arrived in north London.
They cemented that second place here and they made sure that United could not finish in the top four and will probably remain only in sixth place – one place below where they were last season. That is not a good look for Jose Mourinho but he has the lifeline of a Europa League final and, with it, the chance of Champions League qualification. Anything else is unthinkable for him and for United. He will have failed.
Anything short of a win was unthinkable for Spurs in this fixture and for vast tracts of it United simply could not live with them until Mourinho changed his side’s shape and brought on his substitutes. The tension started to build improbably when previously there had been little but a carnival atmosphere and the temptation to go through the party tricks before the celebrations really began.
The game was not inconsequential. There were plenty of chances, with Spurs claiming the lead inside the opening six minutes when Victor Wanyama was allowed – by Wayne Rooney, horribly guilty of failing to mark him – to reach Ben Davies’ left-wing cross and thump a powerful close-range header past David De Gea.
Already it seemed only a matter of how many more goals Spurs would gather, although there was a sudden reminder of the quality that United possess when Rooney played a lovely ball with the outside of his right boot which allowed Anthony Martial to ease past Toby Alderweireld and send a curling shot around Hugo Lloris and only just inches past his far post.
After that it was Spurs v De Gea. Son Heung-min ran clear after his attempted pass to Dele Alli rebounded back to him, only for De Gea to parry, then Kane rose to meet Christian Eriksen’s cross, beating De Gea to it, with his header clipping the top of the crossbar. Kane had already sent Phil Jones tumbling, showing his strength, with Mourinho impressed as he turned and tapped his shoulder.
Soon after and De Gea had to adjust to keep out Eriksen’s deflected cross which threatened to spin over him and into the net before the goalkeeper excelled as he acrobatically punched over Alli’s powerful first-time shot and blocked with an outstretched leg from Kane.
De Gea was finally beaten again, early in the second half, when Kane once more showed his power to hold off Chris Smalling – although the United defender surely had to do better – to reach Eriksen’s whipped-in free-kick and brilliantly flick it right-footed past the goalkeeper, who had little chance.
Mourinho sent on Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Ander Herrera, and United pulled a goal back, with Martial – who impressed – dribbling his way deep into the area from the left and crossing low for Rooney to steal in front of Jan Vertonghen and poke the ball home from inside the six-yard area.
It deflected off the Spurs defender but, either way, United had their first goal away from home against another top-six side, which is as unacceptable a statistic as there can be, under Mourinho, and it took eight games to score it.
Would they spoil the Spurs party? Alli almost made sure that could not happen with an angled shot but Jones ran back to head it off the goal-line.g .
Then, incredibly, anothe another United substitute, Marcus Rashf Rashford, ran onto Michael Carrick’s lo long ball forward in added time.
His pace took him awayaw and suddenly he was through on goal. It felt like the stadium wentwen silent, fearful, anticipatory,pator but RashfordRash liftedlifte the ballbal over theth bar.
That wouldwo havehav been a “Spursy”“Spur moment to go out on. InsteadInstea this is the new Spurs and the they said farewell to their old stadi stadium, to previous glories and hopes of glories to com come, with a victory. TheT flags were waved,wav the pitch invad invaded and then the closingclos ceremony began began.