It was a game of two halves, but after 23 years Tottenham Hotspur finally recorded a victory over Manchester United in the league.
As seen at Anfield last week, Manchester United were near anonymous in the first half as goals from Jan Verthongen and Gareth Bale saw Spurs go into the break 2-0 up. United will count themselves unlucky though, denied what looked a certain penalty after Nani was tugged down in the box, it meant they would have to wait until the second half to mount their comeback.
And what an attempt it was!
Sir Alex swapped Ryan Giggs for Wayne Rooney and it seemed the shackles were removed as United battled back into the game.
Following his poor showing last week, Nani opened United’s scoring on the day turning in a cross from Rooney and it seemed United would overwhelm their opponents, but almost immediately Spurs broke and after good work from Jermain Defoe, Clint Dempsey made it 3-1.
The American’s goal threw a spanner in the works, but United continued to fight and instantly Kagawa latched on to a perfect ball from RVP, turned and dispatched past Brad Friedel making it 3-2.
United now had the bit between their teeth and threw everything at a wilting Spurs team.
Rooney saw a freekick hit the woodwork, RVP was guilty of shooting wide when he should have levelled and Michael Carrick saw a header hit the frame of the goal.
United threw everything at Spurs with Scholes pulling the strings but an equaliser wouldn’t come, and when the whistle blew after 94 minutes AVB had lead Spurs to a monumental first win at Old Trafford since 1989.
United will be worried about that poor first half especially after the showing at Anfield but can take heart from their second half display and if Sir Alex’s side can achieve that kind of performance more often, then he will have little to worry about as United dominated.
It has been obvious for some years that we need new blood in midfield. Never more evident than yesterday as Spurs completly dominated us for 50 minutes. Let’s not be mislead into thinking that the problem doesn’t exist by the spirited comeback or SAF’s rather embarassing comments re the injusry time.
Either we give our young lads a chance or we need to spend some money. Better teams than Spurs lie in wait. Without good provision from midfiled, we are also going to waste the talent that is RVP up front. Here’s hoping for some change.