Sarr strike and Martínez own goal give Spurs edge against Manchester United
A warm sun over White Hart Lane, only a few wisps of white in the vast blue sky. Perhaps after all the clouds and confusion of the close-season, a glorious summer really is breaking for Tottenham. Or perhaps Manchester United are just unexpectedly terrible. They got away with it at Wolves; they did not get away with it here.
The only positive for Erik ten Hag is that United at least have three more points after two games than they did last season, but the performances have been just as ragged. They may feel there were a little unfortunate to lose here but they had been lucky on Monday, and for all that this was a patchy if exciting game of frequent errors and occasional glimmers of real quality, there was too little coherence in their play for them to claim with any conviction that they had been robbed.
The stage is exceptional; the team not at that level yet. Or in truth anywhere close to it. But the noise as a trumpeter led a pre-kick-off rendition of When the Spurs Go Marching In was undeniably rousing. There was also a baffling tifo in the South Stand as, in what Ange Postecoglou will hope is a metaphor, a series of disparate pieces slowly coalesced into a coherent whole, the message “Welcome to N17”. Which is surely not a phrase even the Haringey Tourist Board, if such a thing exists, has contemplated broadcasting before. Perhaps it was meant as a threat.
Not until the half hour did James Maddison really get the sort of run through space that Matheus Cunha had enjoyed over and over, initiating a move that culminated with Pape Sarr jabbing a shot into the chest of André Onana.
Having largely been in control to that point – albeit the end result of that was nothing more than a string of headers over the bar from players who may or may not have been offside – United suddenly looked vulnerable.
The sense of fragility continued into the second half as Spurs took the lead four minutes after the break, Sarr sprinting 40 yards to lash Dejan Kulusevski’s deflected cross into the roof of the net.
Postecoglou may have made Spurs livelier but he has not made them any more secure and, within minutes of Spurs taking the lead, Antony had sidefooted an effort against the post and Guglielmo Vicario made an athletic tip over to keep out a Casemiro header.
Not our day in north London.#MUFC || #TOTMUN
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) August 19, 2023
But that was not the start of a United surge. Postecoglou brought on Ben Davies and Ivan Perisic to shut down the left-hand side and Tottenham had the game closed down before Davies’s scuffed volley trundled in off Lisandro Martínez to seal the win. There were too many glitches for this to be considered anything other than a first tentative step on a very long journey, but at least Spurs seem to know which way they are going. At some point over the summer, United seem to have misplaced their map.
