Tottenham Hotspur vs. Manchester United: Last 3 meetings between the sides | Premier League 2019-20

Tottenham Hotspur 0-1 Manchester United

13th January 2019, Premier League

A tremendous finish from Marcus Rashford cemented a smash-and-grab victory for United in January 2019

Then-Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino hailed the second-half performance of his side in this game as the best he’d ever seen from them, but somehow it still wasn’t enough to rescue even a point, as a first-half goal from Marcus Rashford, as well as some resolute defending and a world-class performance from keeper David de Gea were enough to seal a smash-and-grab win for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s United.

The Red Devils travelled to Wembley on the back of 4 successive Premier League wins under the Norwegian – who was still classed as an ‘interim manager’ at that point – while Pochettino’s Tottenham had lost just 1 of their last 7 league games. After an even first half though, it was United who drew first blood on the stroke of half-time.

Rashford latched onto the end of a beautiful long pass from midfielder Paul Pogba, and was able to race into the box and fire a shot from the right low past Hugo Lloris before the oncoming Jan Vertonghen had chance to intervene. It was a brilliant finish by anyone’s standards.

Tottenham came out strongly in the second half, and utterly bossed the game, eventually ending up with 61% of possession and a total of 21 shots, but try as they might they could not breach United’s goal. Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Toby Alderweireld all came close, but somehow De Gea denied them all – making 11 saves on a whole, including a number with his feet. It was arguably one of the Spaniard’s best-ever performances.

In the end it was clear who the better team was, but unfortunately for Tottenham fans, they took nothing of the spoils, while Solskjaer equalled Sir Matt Busby’s all-time record of winning his first 5 league games in charge of United.