Man U vs. Tottenham
Venue: Old Trafford
Kick off: 4:30PM
Jose Mourinho returns to Old Trafford this afternoon when his Tottenham Hotspur side face Manchester United in the Premier League.
United go into the game off the back of successive wins over Brighton & Hove Albion over the past week, while Spurs have so far coped well with a particularly relentless schedule.
There was drama, controversy and chaos galore in the Premier League last weekend, and these two clubs were at the very heart of it.
Put them together this weekend, and add in Mourinho’s return to his former club, and surely only more can follow.
Manchester United recorded an unforgettable 3-2 win at Brighton as Bruno Fernandes’s 100th-minute penalty – controversially awarded after the final whistle had gone – capped an instant Premier League classic which also included Brighton hitting the woodwork a record five times and netting a 95th-minute equaliser.
While United benefitted from late penalty drama, Spurs suffered from it as Eric Dier was hashly penalised for handball deep into stoppage time to allow Newcastle United to rescue a point with their first shot on target in the 97th minute; Spurs, by contrast had come up against an inspired Karl Darlow, having 11 shots on target and also hitting the woodwork twice.
Both contests will live long in the memory, yet both have also quickly been shunted into the past with the relentless fixture schedule not allowing any time for celebrations or commiserations.
It has been particularly unforgiving for Spurs, whose trip to Old Trafford rounds off a brutal week which will have seen them play four times in three different competitions.
In fairness to Mourinho’s men, they have coped with it admirably; the gut-wrenching draw with Newcastle got the week off to a disappointing start, but since then they have knocked bitter rivals Chelsea out of the EFL Cup on penalties and soared into the Europa League group stages with a 7-2 hammering of Maccabi Haifa on Thursday.
Most pleasing of all for Mourinho will be the fact that they have come out of that spell relatively unscathed on the injury front, while also being able to protect their biggest names against the very real risk of burnout.
Harry Kane hit a hat-trick in the Europa League to continue his productive start to the campaign, helping to secure Tottenham’s place in a group alongside Ludogorets, LASK Linz and Royal Antwerp – all of whom they will be expected to beat.
For now their focus will be firmly back on Premier League matters, though, and there are plenty of improvements to be made after an inauspicious start to the campaign which has seen them win one, draw one and lose one so far.
Mourinho’s enjoyment of clean sheets is well known, yet his side have not kept one in seven outings across all competitions this season; his pleasure at beating a former club where he feels he was harshly treated is palpable, yet he is winless in his last six away league fixtures against sides he previously managed.
Tottenham as a team have struggled with clean sheets on the road for some time now, with their only two from their last 27 such league games coming against sides that have since been relegated.
The last time they recorded a shutout against a club currently in the Premier League was in December 2018.
Worse still, Spurs have won only three of their last 30 Premier League away games against the established ‘big six’, and the last of those was at Old Trafford in August 2018.
That is a record they will likely need to improve significantly if they are to regain their spot in the top four this season, and they will fancy their chances of doing so on Sunday’s trip to Manchester.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side have looked far from convincing so far this season, losing to Crystal Palace at home on the opening day before riding their luck to pick up their first points of the season at Brighton last weekend.
United are now at risk of conceding multiple goals in each of their first three games of a top-flight season for the first time since 1972-73, as well as losing their opening two home league games for the first time since 1986-87.
That latter scenario has only ever happened four times in United’s history, but there is a very real danger of it occurring this weekend if they allow Spurs as many opportunities as Brighton carved out.
Things were much more straightforward for United when they made a second trip to the Amex in quick succession for the EFL Cup fourth round on Wednesday night, running out 3-0 winners and avoiding any of the drama from the prequel.
For all of the frustration surrounding the club off the field – Sunday’s match comes the day before the end of a transfer window which promised huge amounts but has so far delivered only Donny van de Beek – United have now won each of their last three games across all competitions, scoring nine goals in the process.
A first Old Trafford triumph since July would certainly set the 20-time champions up nicely for a difficult run of fixtures which sees them face Chelsea, Arsenal and in-form Everton in three of their next four after this.
Today’s showdown could teach us a lot about both teams’ chances of qualifying for the Champions League this season as they look to take early points off one of their fellow top-four hopefuls.
Man U possible XI: De Gea, Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw, Pogba, Matic, Greenwood, Fernandes, Rashford, Martial.
Tottenham Hotspur possible XI: Lloris, Doherty, Sanchez, Dier, Davies, Hojbjerg, Winks, Lucas, Alli, Bergwijn, Kane.
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