Key events
Post-match postbag (red-card brouhaha edition). “If there was a case for an infra-red card, then Bentancur would have one – completely out of control on Fernandes, followed by the violent conduct on Shaw. However, Shaw should probably have gone too – deservedly booked for the push, but that fall when Betancur lightly touched his forehead was worthy of Olivier” – Andy (not that one) Flintoff
“I get the red card for Spurs. But Shaw kicked it off by shoving him of the pitch” – Mary Waltz
“Shaw deserved two yellows: 1. Push. 2. Simulation. It’s not not simulation because the opponent leaned forward first. Shaw responded in kind by leaning forward himself to draw contact — without which there’s no foul” – Mike Chiropolos
“It’s come to something when Lisandro Martinez is the calming influence” – Adam Roberts
Post-match postbag (red-card brouhaha aside). “There was an awful lot of talk about Baleba needing to take control of United’s failing midfield. I know it’s early days yet but he certainly did that since he came on. He lifted everyone around him, and the crowd too. Quite the debut!” – Justin Kavanagh
“Perhaps United fans will explain but I’m quite baffled by the fuss around Mainoo. Clearly, Tielemans was struggling today but that moment when him and Mainoo appeared to be struggling to run back seemed amazing for such a young player. Or could he just not be bothered?” – Stephen McCrossan
“Have any of the people on the pitch ever actually played, or even seen, a game of football before? I ask because the overwhelming evidence, after some 68 minutes of gametime, is that they haven’t” – Jim Morrish
“I’m not watching the game, but the phrase ‘two bald men fighting over a comb’ springs to mind” – Simon McMahon
“Disappointing result for the neutrals. United in a relegation battle still retains comedy value, but with Spurs it just feels routine these days” – Tim Woods
“Both teams deserved to lose. What Man City did to football in reality, Utd and Spurs have done aesthetically” – David Scahill
A point is the least Tottenham deserved. They were much the better side for the most part, carving out a series of big chances that they butchered in an impressively wide range of styles. So from their point of view, they’ll wonder how on earth they didn’t come away with all three points. But two things can be true at once, and Manchester United will be asking themselves exactly the same question. Having clung on, then made the breakthrough, their reward for an improved second-half showing, how did they fail to get over the line against ten men? The final xG of 0.77 to 1.56 suggests Spurs will be the more frustrated, but in truth it’s one of those games where neither team will be pleased, but both will be relieved, for differing reasons, not to have lost. Manchester United remain in 12th spot, while Tottenham Hotspur peel themselves off the bottom.
FULL TIME: Manchester United 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur
The whistle goes. Another smattering of boos for the home side, but not half as loud as the ones that met them at the break.
90 min +9: Baleba lashes another long-range shot over the bar. That should be about that.
90 min +8: Gray rugby-tackles Heaven, and the referee’s card pops up, toaster-style, once again.
90 min +7: Fernandes takes the Tottenham free kick, but it’s no good.
90 min +6: Tonali prepares to bust into space down the inside-left channel, only to be clipped late by Dalot, who goes into the book. A free kick. All of Tottenham’s big men go up for the set piece.
90 min +5: A double change for United, who send on Heaven and Rashford for Cunha and Shaw.
90 min +4: United had looked suddenly shaky since the announcement of eight additional minutes, and paid the price. Maguire tries to reply with a fierce drive that warms Kinsky’s palms. Neither team looks in the mood to declare.
GOAL! Manchester United 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur (Solanke 90+2)
A slow-motion equaliser! Tonali clips a cross in from the left-hand edge of the United box. Solanke wrestles with Martinez, eight yards out, and wins the tussle, flicking a header across Lammens and into the bottom right!
90 min: Dalot is sent into space on the overlap down the right. He cuts back for Cunha, who shoots towards the bottom right. Van Hecke slides in to block, and Kinsky claims. Cunha claims a handball, but that’s never going to be given. There will be eight additional minutes,
89 min: Senesi comes on for Fernandes. One of United’s failed summer transfer targets is booed in the pantomime style upon his arrival.
87 min: Maddison prepares to advance down the left when Martinez slides in late. Another yellow card. Suffice to say this game continues to putter away on the stove, ready to spill over at any moment.
85 min: Baleba sends a clever long pass down the United right. Mbeumo beats Senesi in a foot race, and shoots from the edge of the box. Kinsky parries around the right-hand post.
83 min: Fernandes lands on Van Hecke’s achilles. It’s not a great challenge, and he’s booked. The Spurs players want more, but they’re not getting their wish.
82 min: Shaw’s reaction amid all of that wasn’t great … but then he’s been on the end of a dreadful tackle before, and at great and lengthy cost, so you can perhaps understand how his buttons were pressed.
80 min: In the dugout, De Zerbi sits quietly seething. How have his team got themselves into this mess?
RED CARD: Bentancur (Tottenham Hotspur)
78 min: It’s red for Bentancur. Yellows for Van Hecke and Shaw. That escalated in super-fast time. Old Trafford really bubbling now!
77 min: It all kicks off! Van Hecke crashes into Fernandes. Bentancur then scissor-tackles Shaw, missing his man by inches. He’s about to get booked when Shaw comes back at his man and shoves him hard in the chest, and off the pitch. Bentancur springs up and reacts with a butt. Cue an old-school bench-emptying melee on the touchline!
76 min: Spurs are up against it now all right, because they haven’t won in the Premier League after conceding first for 48 games. Everton and Leeds are next with nine!
74 min: Spurs respond by sending on Maddison and Van de Ven. Udogie and Gallagher make way.
GOAL! Manchester United 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur (Mbeumo 73)
United have been second best for the majority of this match, but now look! Cunha probes down the left and cuts back for Mbeumo, who isn’t closed down by Van Hecke. He’s got just enough time and space to turn and thread a shot across Kinsky and into the bottom right! Lads, it’s the same old story.
72 min: Maguire takes a whack from 25 yards. Blocked. A bit early to get this desperate, surely, though it worked against Ipswich I guess.
71 min: Gallagher busies himself down the right, released into a little space by Savio’s cute pass. But the eventual cross is no good.
69 min: United do their best to tee up Spurs a couple of times, Fernandes, Shaw and Maguire failing to clear the ball under pressure in a slapstick sequence. Eventually Savio shoots from the right-hand edge of the box; Mainoo extends to deflect over the bar. Nothing comes of the resulting corner. How is this game still goalless? Answer: Ineptitude of attackers > ineptitude of defenders.
67 min: Spurs respond to the United triple change with a double of their own. Bergvall and Kudus make way for Bentancur and Marmoush.
65 min: Spurs waste another chance. Senesi slides a pass down the left. Tonali flicks it on, and Udogie is clear in the box! Udogie tries a fancy outside-of-foot shot across Lammens, aiming for the bottom right … and sends the ball bouncing apologetically wide. The offside flag goes up to give him a little succour.
63 min: Dalot crosses from the right. Fernandes stoops to head, but can’t connect. Goal kick. Then seconds later, Fernandes slices a shot from the right-hand corner of the Spurs box well wide. But Old Trafford is suddenly energised.
62 min: Fernandes gracefully wedges the free kick over the wall, the ball dropping to Zirkzee who wins a corner, from which Baleba skies his first shot in a Manchester United shirt. Goal kick.
61 min: The triple-sub energises the crowd, and United surge forward. Cunha advances down the inside-left channel and feels Kudus’s hand on his shoulder. He needs no second invitation to go down and buy a cheap free kick, just to the left of the D. Bruno Country.
59 min: United deal with the second corner easily enough, and here come the replacements. Zirkzee, Dalot and the debutant Baleba replacing Yoro, Tielemans and Diallo.
58 min: The corner’s hit long from the left. Van Hecke wins a header past the far stick, sending the ball back across the face of goal. Maguire is forced to eyebrow over his own bar for another corner.
57 min: Savio runs at the United defence but can’t make a decision. United take over, and Fernandes nearly releases Mbeumo down the right. Goal kick. Spurs then counter the counter, and Savio’s low drive from the left is deflected wide left. Michael Carrick prepares a triple sub, but before that, here comes the corner.
55 min: Gray shepherds the ball out of play down the left, under pressure from Cunha. But then Cunha slide-hooks the ball back into the path of Tielemans, who calmly passes into the bottom-right corner of the net! But then the flag goes up, the ball having been clearly out of play before Cunha’s intervention.
54 min: Fernandes nutmegs Senesi down the inside-left channel but before he can shoot, Udogie comes across to blooter clear. Cunha then wins a corner down the same flank, but nothing comes of that.
53 min: Tielemans is stripped of possession by Gallagher, who fails to release Bergvall down the middle with a careless pass. United are getting away with it again and again.
51 min: Another huge missed chance by Spurs. This is getting old. Savio in more space on the left. This time the cross is delivered first time. Solanke, six yards out, shins over the bar. On the touchline, De Zerbi laughs ironically, but if his team don’t end up with all three points tonight, he’ll have quite a few words to say to his players later on.
50 min: Tonali slips Savio into acres of space down the left. He should find Solanke or Kudus clear in the middle with an early cross, but hesitates. When the ball eventually comes, Shaw gets back to block-hook clear. That’s another huge opportunity Spurs have spurned.
48 min: … so having said that, Shaw powers his way past Gray down the left and crosses low, forcing Van Hecke to divert the ball out for United’s first corner of the evening. The set piece isn’t up to much, and Diallo’s attempt to salvage it with a long-range shot sails miles over the bar.
47 min: United start the second period in control of the ball, but there’s no way into the Spurs final third. The visitors have looked pretty well organised on the whole.
Manchester United get the second half started. No changes. The hosts attacking the Stretford End now.
Late Night Line-Up Early-Evening Line-Up with Joan Bakewell Gary Naylor. “Did you see Jeff Koons’ masterpiece Puppy in full bloom? I can understand it being underwhelming if a bit before or a bit after its peak, but not right on it. A man to provoke varied reactions is Jeff, somewhat like Messrs Carrick and De Zerbi at the mo.”
To be fair to Mr Koons, there’s no point asking me about art. Once inside the gallery, and faced with Yves Klein’s La grande Anthropométrie bleue (ANT 105) (ca. 1960, dry pigment and synthetic resin on paper mounted on canvas, 287.8 x 430 x 4 cm), my instinct was less to consider the concept of representing the nude body without resorting to traditional forms, more recording myself in front of it while singing I’m blue da ba dee. Anyway, I’ve gone well off piste here: suffice to say, dear reader, listen to Mr Naylor and not Simple Scotty.
Half-time postbag. “I’ve assumed all season that once Spurs are playing like a De Zerbi team, they’ll be fine because most teams in the league won’t be able to live with them. Well, Manchester United couldn’t live with them for the first half hour, but Tottenham’s players couldn’t finish their chances. Not to be reductive, but if a football team doesn’t score goals, it won’t win many games” – Kári Tulinius
“Youri Tielemans is 29, but he has 678 matches in his legs – it shows” – Gary Naylor
“It’s all very well for Matheus Cunha to be geeing the crowd up. If the team played better, the crowd would respond” – Adam Roberts
“That 51-years ticker has made my day. Well in, Reds. And this, more than any of the (richly deserved) sanctions to come, is what needs to be done. In the Trump and Johnson era, some shame needs to be reattached to cheating and lying. Long may the pile on continue” – Allan Castle
“The perennial battle for 16th place is doing nothing for the neutral fan today” – Cat in a Rage
“Fouls, poor passing, niggle. Typical relegation six-pointer” – Andrew Goudie
“I’m high on life after coming off on holiday yesterday then watching United, the Dundee variety, move into the top six of the Scottish Premier with a 1-0 win over Hibs at Tannadice today. It’s also United legend Paul Sturrock’s 70th birthday, one of the top 10 players ever to wear the Tangerine, so might celebrate by crying uncontrollably at the realisation that it’s not the 1980s anymore watching videos of him on Youtube all night and opening a bottle of malt. Cheers!” – Simon McMahon
HALF TIME: Manchester United 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur
The xG is 0.05 to 0.96. Spurs, who started so strongly, should be leading. United are booed off by a section of their support.
45 min: Tielemans ships possession on the edge of his own box. Gray crosses from the right. Lammens claims. There will be one additional first-half minute.
44 min: Martinez, quarterbacking from deep, nearly finds Fernandes in the box on the right with a long diagonal. Kinsky reads the danger, racing to the edge of his area to intercept. That’s decent play all round.
42 min: … so having said all that, here’s another chance for Spurs as Gallagher barrels his way down the inside-right channel, enters the box, and shapes to shoot. But he can’t throw his shape quickly enough, and doesn’t get a shot away, a combination of Tielemans, Martinez, Maguire and Lammens somehow bundling the ball clear.
41 min: Spurs have blown themselves out after their strong start, and now it’s Manchester United on top. The visitors must be cursing those near misses by Solanke and Kudus.
39 min: Now it’s Gray’s turn to execute a perfect slide tackle, putting a stop to Fernandes’s gallop with a three-on-two break developing.
38 min: Kudus slips Udogie into space down the left … but Yoro puts a stop to the overlap with another of those perfectly timed slide-blocks. Yoro has been United’s best player by far.
36 min: With United pushing Spurs back, Cunha clips Gallagher to concede a needless free kick. He stares theatrically at the linesman, then Gallagher wags his finger at the official. Both risking a booking; the latter would be walking, and needs to check himself.
34 min: … Gallagher’s shot from distance is charged down, and Mbeumo and Diallo break two on two! The former feeds the latter down the inside-left channel, and Diallo gets United’s first shot on target. Easy for Kinsky, though.
33 min: … but Savio’s delivery is no good. However the ball’s only half cleared, and Senesi’s long diagonal finds Savio out on the left. Savio skates past Tielemans and crosses long, forcing Shaw to head behind for a corner. From which …
32 min: Tielemans obstructs Gallagher as the Spurs man cuts in from the left. A free kick and a chance to load the box …
