In-form Tottenham piled further pressure on under-fire Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag with a dominant 3-0 win at Old Trafford on Sunday. Spurs made a flying start when Brennan Johnson tapped in from Micky Van de Ven’s storming run after three minutes. Spurs really should have added to their lead long before United were reduced to 10 men when captain Bruno Fernandes was shown a straight red card on 42 minutes.
Dejan Kulusevski finally doubled the visitors advantage two minutes into the second half before Dominic Solanke rounded off the scoring. Ten Hag had begun the new season under fire after having survived an in-house review at the end of last season.
The surprise FA Cup final win over Manchester City was credited for saving the former Ajax coach’s job after an eighth-place finish in the Premier League last season. A third defeat in United’s first six league games of the new campaign leaves the Red Devils down in 12th and time surely running out for their beleaguered boss.
United face daunting trips to Porto in the Europa League and Aston Villa on league duty next weekend before a two-week international break that clubs often use to implement managerial change.
“I think we will get better and we need some time,” said Ten Hag.
“We are all on one page, in the same boat, together, ownership, leadership group, staff and players.”
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou was himself under pressure just over a week ago. But Spurs have won four games in 12 days and turned in arguably their best performance of the Australian’s reign.
“Outstanding,” said Postecoglou. “I Thought we showed real belief and conviction.
“We were aggressive with and without the ball. Fantastic all-round performance.”
It was a stunning surge from Van de Ven well inside his own half to the United byline, but his cross over left Johnson the simple task of scoring in a fourth consecutive game.
“What I saw in first 30 mins is below the level we can expect from a Manchester United team,” added Ten Hag.
“The players became so stressed after the goal conceded so quick and they made bad decisions.”
Tottenham were without injured captain Son Heung-min and missed the South Korean’s clinical finishing as they tried to kill the game off. Andre Onana saved one-on-ones from James Maddison and Timo Werner, with Johnson thudding another effort off the post.
At the other end, Joshua Zirzkee had United’s best chance to level matters when he was denied by a brilliant low save from Guglielmo Vicario.
Any hope of a United fightback was killed by a moment of madness from their skipper. Fernandes slipped as he slid into a challenge with Maddison but raised his studs to catch the England international.
Ten Hag’s response to this was to sacrifice his lone striker in Zirkzee for the much-criticised Casemiro at half-time. The Brazilian was at fault, along with one or two others, while the second Tottenham goal went in.
Solanke outmuscled Casemiro before sending Johnson tearing down the right and his deflected cross was elegantly flicked beyond Onana by Kulusevski.
Thereafter, the 10 men showed plenty of fight, and Casemiro came close to halving United’s deficit.
But worse defending allowed Solanke to slide in Tottenham’s third from a corner. Solanke really should have rubbed salt into United wounds when Onana saved another one-on-one in stoppage time.
The travelling support goaded Ten Hag at times in the second half with chants of “you’re getting sacked in the morning”. That was less than three months ago, when United’s new football leadership team handed the Dutchman an extension to his contract. How quickly they retreat from that decision now seems a matter of time.
