Sunday 04/03/2012
Premier League
Manchester United keep pace with the league leaders with victory at White Hart Lane.
United were missing Antonio Valencia and Tom Cleverley through injury for the trip to North London, however Spurs themselves were without key players, with Gareth Bale and Rafael Van Der Vaart missing through injury. The hosts were also without Scott Parker who was sent off against Arsenal last weekend.
Wayne Rooney returned to the starting line up after missing United's last two fixtures with a throat infection. United named an unchanged back four from the side that defeated Norwich last weekend, with Ashley Young chosen ahead of Ryan Giggs in midfield.
United started well, edging the midfield battle for the first ten minutes of play. However the home side soon imposed themselves on the game pressuring well, not allowing United's midfield duo of Michael Carrick and Paul Scholes time or space with the ball. This led to a sustained period of first half pressure for Spurs in which they won a number of corners and dominated possession. They had the visitors on the ropes and thought they had opened the scoring when Emmanuel Adebayor back-heeled the ball into the net. However referee Martin Atkinson ruled the effort out for hand ball by the Togolese striker.
United would have been lucky to go into the break on level terms, so when on the stroke of half time Wayne Rooney headed home Ashley Young's corner United will have been delighted to now be going to the break with the lead.
Spurs had out muscled the Red Devils all over the pitch, and despite United holding the lead they would need to improve their performance to avoid getting overrun by Spurs in the second period. Tottenham started the second half where they left off pushing United back deep into their own half, with centre halves Rio Ferdinand and Jonny Evans having to be at the top of their game to continually keep the hosts at bay.
Just six minutes after the restart David De Gea had to react quickly to keep out Jake Livermore's shot which took a late deflection of Louis Saha, with the young Spaniard just managing to turn the chance round the post for yet another Spurs corner.
Moments later they came even closer as Benoit Assou-Ekotto saw his left footed free-kick strike the top of bar. As the hour mark approached Spurs were finally looking like making a breakthrough, when on a rare counter attack Nani managed to get in behind the Tottenham defence. The Portuguese winger fired a cross into the box, Kyle Walker's attempted clearance fell to Ashley Young, whose precision volley gave United a two goal advantage.
After all their hard work and endeavour, Spurs now found themselves two goals down, despite playing the better football. This seemed to effect their game as United now found them selves in the ascendency, taking only another nine minutes to grab their third. It was Ashley Young again, curling a beautiful right footed effort in to the top of Brad Friedel's goal after he had found himself with time on the ball 25 yards from goal.
Spurs were deflated, three goals down with just 20 minutes of the game remaining. The visitors had the lead and were more than happy to keep hold of the ball with some neat and tidy play.
This continued until the 87th minute when second half substitute Jermain Defoe intercepted a loose pass from Ryan Giggs firing a 20 yard effort beyond David De Gea to reduce the deficit to 3-1.
Spurs attempted to rally for the final few minutes of play, but it was too little too late as United moved back to within two points of the top with an impressive win at White Hart Lane, inflicting only Tottenham's second home league defeat of the season.
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