A comprehensive defeat, but the panic button shouldn’t be pressed just yet

So that’s that. Tottenham’s 100% record has been brought to a swift end by the current Premier League champions in a game which demonstrated first hand just why we are not (yet) top four material. Manchester United were classier and harder working than us yesterday, and their skill showed us they fought back from a goal down to earn a superb 3-1 win. I class myself as a diehard Tottenham fan and it’s sometimes hard to take a step back after the game and evaluate the outcome neutrally. But I have no difficulty in saying the following: Manchester United deserved their three points.

Of course, when Manchester United are in town a few refereeing decisions will always go against you. I might have said United deserved their victory, there’s no question about that, but there were a couple of suspect decisions which went in United’s favour yesterday. True, they had Paul Scholes sent off, but Vidic could have joined him after seemingly elbowing Peter Crouch. In all reality though these decisions probably wouldn’t have changed the course of the game. The Vidic elbow occurred late on and the Red Devils never really looked as if they were going to surrender the victory.

Despite this however, I don’t think Tottenham should panic just yet. If somebody had came up to me before the season and offered me 4 wins out of 5, I’d have bit there hand off. And it’s not like we showed absolutely zero conviction yesterday. In fact we started brilliantly with Defoe scoring the quickest goal of the season with a superb, Klinsman-esque bicycle kick. Of course, as soon as the goal went in we knew we had 89 minutes of nail-biting hell ahead (like England, Tottenham simply don’t “do” defending one goal leads) but it was nice to see we were taking the game to United. So many teams play the big four and defend for 90 minutes in the hope of snatching a point- whereas I love seeing Tottenham giving them some problems. Might as well attack and end up losing 3-1 then defend well but lose 1-0. That said, you still have to be a bit tactically savvy when playing the big boys; so fielding three strikers probably wasn’t the right move on ‘Arry’s part. Keane, Defoe and Crouch all started, with new signing Niko Kranjcar left on the bench. This was a big mistake in my opinion. I know we had to re-shuffle to deal with the loss of Luka Modric, but fielding an out of position Keane when we had both Kranjcar and Giovani on the bench made no sense. Kranjcar was match fit after playing for Croatia and should have started. By the time he came on in the second half it was too little too late.

 

Whilst Tottenham fielded the wrong man on the left, Sir Alex Ferguson undoubtedly fielded the right man. Ryan Giggs curled home the equaliser 24 minutes after Defoe’s opener, from a free-kick won by Dimitar Berbatov after Wilson Palacios hacked him down. Sarge was given a yellow card for the tackle and struggled in bossing the midfield then on after. The free kick was a sweet one from Giggs and renewed United’s confidence, as they surged forward in search of a second.

God only knows how we held out for as long as we did after United’s opener. They had a plethora of chances, Berbatov went close on a few occasions and had a shot blocked on the line by Bassong, and Rooney tested Carlo Cudicini. However midfielder Anderson eventually broke the dogged resistance, smashing home a low shot from a poor clearance after a corner. The goal was a kick in the teeth when it came as if we’d had managed to hold out until half-time we might have been able to snatch a point, but it was a well deserved. Five minutes later the half time whistle reverberated around the Lane and the sides headed into the dressing room, with United firmly in control.

As the sides reappeared, Tottenham nearly scored as early in the second half as they had done in the first- unfortunately however Robbie Keane’s shot was deflected over the bar by Nemanja Vidic- almost certainly saving a goal. Peter Crouch also went close in finding the equaliser with a header that clattered the United crossbar. We were piling the pressure on and many hoped we might nick a point. These hopes were strengthened when Paul Scholes saw red after picking up two yellow cards, but Wayne Rooney killed off any hope of a comeback. Spurs had pushed forwards to attack and, when the ball came to Darren Fletcher, the midfielder was easily able to pick out Rooney who bamboozled Alan Hutton before slotting the ball between the legs of Cudicini. 3-1 and game over.

So, yes, I’m disappointed to lose but you know that when you’re up against United, you’re up against it. Hopefully the lads will regroup for Chelsea next week, and we can carry on with our winning streak.

Manager Reaction.

Harry Redknapp:

“I have never got carried away. We’ve still had a great start, with 12 points from five games.

I fancied us to get something today. We had a fantastic start and we were seeing three points again. But we knew they would come back – that’s why they win titles and European titles. They have outstanding players.”

Sir Alex Ferguson:

“Tottenham are in great form at the moment and they made a fantastic start. We had to gather our game and show composure and I thought our football was fantastic.

If it wasn’t for the sendin off I’d be very happy. It was a terrible sending off and the referee got it wrong. He lifted his leg above the other player and, in fact, the Tottenham player has done him. He is the one who should have been punished. It was a bad sending-off and, having looked at the tape, I think he has been sent off because his name is Paul Scholes.”