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Spurs beat the Red Devils 6-1 earlier this season, despite going behind to an early Bruno Fernandes penalty. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team will be out looking for revenge when the two sides meet again on Sunday.
It would turn out to be a night to forget for Manchester United when they invited Tottenham to Old Trafford earlier in the season. The Red Devils took the lead early on through Bruno Fernandes but then conceded six times in a remarkable Premier League outing. Since then, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s and Jose Mourinho’s respective teams have gone highly different ways.
When Harry Kane scored the penalty to make it 6-1 to Tottenham against Manchester United at Old Trafford, it seemed that Mourinho had finally turned his team around. The Englishman scored twice on the night, as did Son Heung-min. Serge Aurier and Tanguy N’Dombele added gloss to an already glistening scoreline.
Yet, with two-thirds of the season played. Spurs find themselves playing catch-up with Manchester United on the table. The Red Devils turned their campaign around following that dreadful loss and are currently second in the league, behind champions-elect Manchester City. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men have lost just four times domestically but still trail their rivals by fourteen points.
Tottenham, meanwhile, have fallen off a cliff since that incredible win. Mourinho’s team looked among the favourites to lift the Premier League title at one point but are currently sitting sixth in the table. They have accrued just 49 points from 30 matches and are 11 behind United. The North London outfit is in danger of missing out on a UEFA Champions League spot for the second season in a row – a situation which could have implications with regards to Kane’s future.
The job Mourinho has done so far at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has also come into question. The Portuguese tactician saw his team embarrassingly crash out of the UEFA Europa League last month when they surrendered a 2-0 advantage to Dinamo Zagreb.
United come into the game looking for revenge for that humiliating loss. The Red Devils will be without Anthony Martial, who was recently sidelined with injury. Meanwhile, who Solskjaer picks to start in goal will be a key talking point, with Dean Henderson and David De Gea fighting for one spot.
Key Players
Harry Kane: Whether he will be wearing the lily-white shirt next season remains to be seen, but Kane is a Spurs player at the moment. And a pretty important one, too. The Tottenham skipper is the team’s top scorer and provider this season and will, once again, be key to his side’s chances against Manchester United. He scored twice when Spurs played last – a 2-2 draw against Newcastle United.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg: Manchester United are reliant upon Bruno Fernandes to produce that little bit of magic. Marking him out of the game then means cutting off the Red Devils’ key creative threat. That responsibility should fall on the shoulders of Hojbjerg, who has been among the best signings this season. If he does his job effectively, Spurs could have a chance to do the double over their opponents.
Bruno Fernandes: Planning how to deal with Fernandes is easy. Whether a team can do that effectively is the real question. A quick look at the Portuguese’s statistics for the season reveals that more teams have failed to contain him than have done so. He has 16 goals and 11 assists in the league this season, including one earlier against Spurs.
Marcus Rashford: The Englishman has made headlines more for his off-pitch contributions than his on-pitch ones for much of this season. However, Rashford is beginning to hit the headlines for his contributions on the pitch lately. He has scored for his team in the last two matches against Brighton and Granada, respectively.
Prediction
While they may be having remarkably different seasons, the games between Manchester United and Tottenham have often been incredibly entertaining. Both teams have plenty of attacking talent in their roster to produce yet another high-scoring Premier League classic.
Both teams have plenty going their way in terms of the underlying statistics. Spurs, for example, currently employ the player leading both the top-scorer and the top-assister charts in the league this season. Harry Kane is joined only by Bruno Fernandes in achieving this remarkable feat, with the Manchester United talisman among the top-five players in both departments.
United have a form on their side. They have won their last three league matches against Brighton, West Ham United, and Manchester City. On the other hand, Spurs have a finely balanced record in their last three league matches, having won, drawn, and lost one each. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team will have the upper hand in that department and should be able to use it to their benefit.
