United Earn Their Spurs

In the most-eagerly awaited match of the return; Tottenham Hotspur & Manchester United battled to a 1-1 draw in the fight for Champions League at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It was United who led the early going as Jose Mourinho not surprisingly decided to 'park the bus' and rely on the counter-attack. For large parts; it seemed to work as United have trouble breaking down packed defences; preferring to break on the counter as well instead.

And on one of Spurs' such occasions; United's defence was unfortunately exposed as a long ball from Hugo Lloris found its way to Steven Bergwijn; who managed to turn Harry Maguire comfortably before firing in a shot that David de Gea should have saved; but inexplicably let in to the net.

United started the second half the brighter; upping the energy and possession stakes; but I thought the real turning point came when Ole Gunnar Solksjaer decided to bring on Paul Pogba for Fred. Suddenly; the match turned as United now had creativity to go with the effort. And yes; the long-awaited partnership between Bruno Fernandes & Pogba materialised and yes; they look awesome playing together; as United switched to a 4-3-3 from 4-2-3-1. I would think having Scott McTominay as the central holding midfielder would allow Fernandes & Pogba to exhibit their attacking talents on either side.

And it was Pogba who showed a delicious bit of skill to put United back level. Isolated on the wide-right with Eric Dier; he executed a delicious cut-back to get round the Spurs man and draw an unnecessary foul; with Fernandes scoring the resultant penalty. We also saw a sizzling long-range pass from Pogba to Rashford later on that exemplified his skill & passing range.

There was more drama late on as Dier; who had an excellent game otherwise; seemed to up-end Fernandes inside the area for a second penalty. However; it was correctly overturned by VAR; not that Mourinho was in the mood for much forgiving.