Key events
85 min: Amad comes on for Mount.
After six games of the Premier League season, United’s record is set to read: two wins, one draw and three defeats. Proper mid-table stuff.
84 min: There’s blood pouring from the top of Mount’s head, which doesn’t look good at all.
82 min: There’s a bit of concern here for Mason Mount, who is down with a head injury. Dragusin’s first act after coming on was to steamroll into the back of Mount challenging for an aerial ball.
The goal that wrapped up the win for Tottenham.
81 min: The excellent Van de Ven is replaced by Dragusin. The big Dutchman gets the broadcasters’ Man Of The Match prize.
79 min: An email just asked whether Solanke had been ineffectual … quite the opposite, he’s been really good both on and off the ball. That goal caps the performance.
The Spurs fans sing his name.
GOAL! Man Utd 0-3 Spurs (Solanke 77)
Solanke from close range seals the deal!
Poor marking from United from the set piece and the summer signing scores a proper centre-forward’s goal, pouncing on the second ball. That will kill any momentum United had.
Spurs subs: Johnson, Maddison and Werner are coming off, to be replaced by Bergvall, Moore and Sarr.
76 min: Spurs need a period of calm in possession and that should be enough for them, really. Postecoglou is preparing to ring the changes … he’s probably not been too impressed with this second half display. It’s been a slightly odd performance.
74 min: Eriksen has taken two set-pieces since coming on and they’ve both hit the first man.
73 min: Porro barges needlessly into Garnacho and concedes both a yellow card and a free-kick to United.
72 mins: Martinez again finds himself in a great spot on the edge of Spurs’ box but only succeeds in hitting his shot straight into the defender. Werner has been wasteful a couple of times going forward for Tottenham, which is giving United more hope. Garnacho wins a corner.
It’s Højlund and Eriksen for Ugarte and Rashford.
70 min: You wonder if some complacency is setting in for Spurs here. That can be the only reason for giving these chances up. They ought to be home and hosed.
69 min: Rasmus Højlund was a goalscorer against Spurs in this fixture last season and he’s being readied now.
Oh and Casemiro goes close for the second time since coming on! He’s almost steered it home from an acute angle. Big chance that actually.
67 min: Garnacho remains United’s best outlet, but it’s a big effort for them to get it forward and give him enough time and support to create a chance.
Spurs surge down the left but Werner’s driven cross is straight into Onana’s arms.
65 min: It’d be a big surprise if this ends 2-0 United have decided it’s time to give this a final good go and Spurs are still committing men forward, leaving gaps. Ugarte is booked for hauling down Kulusevski.
63 min: It comes to something when Lisandro Martinez looks like Man United’s most effective attacking player. A series of set-pieces has the home fans hoping again. Can they conjure something?
Casemiro heads just wide from a Garnacho corner. This is United’s best spell of the game.
61 min: That Romero one was really dicey but VAR had no interest in overturning the on-field decision. It’s one of those confusing, 50-50 calls.
60 min: After a rare United corner, there are halfhearted appeals for a Kulusevski handball and a penalty. I don’t think it even touched him arm.
United appeal again for a handball as Martinez has a shot wide. Romero is the potential culprit.
58 min: Bentancur shrugs off Ugarte for the umpteenth time this afternoon. He’s been excellent for Tottenham today.
57 min: Remember when Postecoglou, when Spurs had nine men against Chelsea last season, went completely gung-ho and actually threatened to get a result from the game? Time for a bit of that from Ten Hag.
Onana with a fine double save from Werner and Solanke. Good from the United goalkeeper.
An email from Simon McMahon gives us an idea of what Big Ange’s half-time team talk might have been:
Lads, it’s United.
53 min: Referee Chris Kavanagh pauses, crouches and considers giving Spurs a penalty as Mazraoui bundles into the back of Spence. Nothing doing in the end and VAR agrees.
50 min: Ten Hag and some ardent United fans may well cite a harsh red card as an excuse after this game, but Spurs should have been three or four ahead by the time of Fernandes’ dismissal.
Do United have any fight left in them?
GOAL! Man Utd 0-2 Spurs (Kulusevski 47)
Maybe not! Kulusevski gets the crucial second goal.
It’s way too easy again for Spurs who cut a path down the right through Johnson. It’s deftly touched beyond Onana by Kulusevski in the end. The scoreline now better reflects the visitors’ dominance.
47 min: Casemiro as United’s saviour is a narrative arc that few saw coming this season. It could yet happen.
Second half: More Tottenham dominance, or some resistance from United’s 10 men? Let’s find out.
Both teams have made changes. Casemiro is on for Zirkzee in a defensive sub from the hosts, with Djed Spence replacing the injured Udogie.
Answers on a postcard please.
FC Twente celebrated a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford in midweek. On this evidence, they should have been gutted.
I’m off for a half-time brew.
There’s some debate in my inbox about the Fernandes red card. It’s possibly an orange, but when you make zero attempt to play the ball and tackle a player halfway up his shin, you can have few complaints. VAR was never ever going to overturn it.
As Joe Pearson points out: “And Bruno wasn’t even in your list of likely [red card’] suspects!
Here’s the incident (for UK readers):
HT: Man Utd 0-1 Spurs
Tottenham finish the half a goal up and a man up but that tells only half the story at Old Trafford, after a listless 45-minute performance from Manchester United that will bring increased scrutiny on Erik ten Hag.
Brennan Johnson scored the opener early on, but Spurs could and should be further in front. Half-time provides some welcome respite for the United players, and fans, and oh to be a fly on the wall in that home dressing room in the next 15 minutes. What happens next is anyone’s guess.
45 min + 2: Apparently Mainoo has an injury so that’s why he was subbed.
It won’t surprise you when I say that Spurs are dominating in first half stoppage time.
Five minutes are added at the end of the first half. United are a shambles at this stage.
45 min: United actually played with nine for a bit, as Ten Hag couldn’t get Mount on. Gary Neville, commentating on Sky, has steam coming out of his ears.
44 min: Having seen nearly all of United’s games this term, that sums up Fernandes’ season so far. He’s been way off his best and often cut a frustrated figure. That was the act of a frustrated man.
“You’re gonna cry in a minute,” sing the Spurs fans, as Ten Hag prepares Mason Mount to come on. Kobbie Mainoo (really?) is the man taken off.
RED CARD (Bruno Fernandes)
A straight red for the United captain. That was seriously rash.
The complaints continue but I suspect this will not be overturned by VAR. There was absolutely no attempt to play the ball and he scraped his foot down Maddison’s shin. Let’s see.
41 min: A flurry of set-pieces for Tottenham who are ending this half as they started it. On top. They keep it alive a few times after semi-clearances from United but nothing quite comes.
39 min: Big stop from Onana! Werner is one-on-one with the United keeper but he fluffs his lines. That came when United had committed too many men forward and Spurs, as they’ve done continually, cut them to ribbons.
38 min: Garnacho and Rashford have at least looked fairly dangerous on the break.
“The Spurs midfield are doing really well in circumstances they can’t possibly have trained for,” says Anthony Griffin on email. “They are being passed to consistently by both teams’ defences.”
37 min: Garnacho strikes the post! It would have been a brilliant volley, as he meets Rashford’s cross from deep on the left.
That gets the crowd going a little.
36 min: United finally get forward on the counter but there are groans as Zirkzee chooses to slow it down. It leads to very little in the end.
Can they produce anything before half-time? Just the one chance of note thus far.
34 min: Every time I look up from my screen, United have given the ball away. Mazraroui flies late into Udogie and is booked.
33 min: You have to give Spurs credit for the pressure they’re putting the hosts under. It’s ceaseless. Udogie sees another effort fly over the crossbar, though this one was deflected off De Ligt. The away side sense another goal.
Romero volleys wide from another cross.
30 min: James Maddison must think Christmas has come early. He’s running this game. Onana saves his shot, which came from another United error on the ball.
