Nick Ames has filed his match report from the Tottenham Stadium, so that’s my cue to get some fresh air while the sun is still shining in North London. Thanks for your company and correspondence. Congratulations to Ruben Amorim on not losing to Spurs for the first time in four attempts, congratulations to Thomas Frank on winning the battle of the benches and congratulations to the crowd on giving us every mood in the book.
Here comes Thomas Frank, with his excellent hair. “A very big positive from this game,” he says, “is the second half, where we stick to the game plan, stick to the structure, kept believing. That’s huge when we know about the Chelsea game, the home record and all that. And of course you’re disappointed when you don’t win, 11 against ten, but that’s just football, how many times have we seen it?”
Bryan Mbeumo moves up this list. Mind you, everybody on it is an also-ran next to Erling Haaland.
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“Fully deserved draw for United,” says Joshua Keeling. “I’d have been so annoyed if we lost – we deserved to win. May have embarrassed myself in a pub in Whitby with my celebrations for De Ligt’s equaliser…”
A minute later, he sends a PS. “Also, just to add – great character from United. A late equaliser away from home for the second week in a row, and this time with ten men. They are clearly on the right track with Amorim.”
At the risk of killing the mood in Whitby, it’s also the second week in a row that they’ve gone from 1-0 up to 2-1 down.
Way back in the 72nd minute, when they were still ahead, I asked if anyone was old enough to remember when it was perfectly normal for United to be second. “Unfortunately,” says Mark Armstrong, “I’m old enough to remember United in the Second Division!”
There hasn’t been a moment to look at an email till now, but the first one I open is a good one. “This is a game,” says Matthew Carpenter-Arevalo, “where everything I am mumbling to myself about what Frank is getting wrong turns out to be wrong. Why start Richie? Why throw on Tel? I truly know nothing.”
As it stands
Both teams were second at different stages of this game. Now neither of them are, though Spurs squeeze up to third, on goal difference ahead of four other teams – including United, who are seventh. Both can expect to slip a bit as the other games unfold.
Well, that was a slow-burner. In the first half-hour, neither side had a shot on target. Then Bryan Mbeumo scored with a header and Spurs were booed off for half-time. They responded to the crowd, suddenly playing much better, benefiting from some shrewd substitutions and eventually scoring twice in eight minutes through Mathys Tel and Richarlison. United, down to ten men after Benjamin Sesko limped off, found a late equaliser for the second away game running.
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FULL TIME! Spurs 2-2 Man United
Honours even!
90+6 min It wasn’t Yoro doing Maguire’s job, it was Matthijs de Ligt. United had a corner which reached him at the far post, and he calmly planted his header in back of the net.
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GOAL! Spurs 2-2 Man United (De Ligt 90+5)
They’re not gloating now!
90+5 min Leny Yoro is now playing centre-forward – that’s Maguire’s job. The crowd have gone from oohing (when Van de Ven beat one man) to booing (when Spurs trailed at half-time) to gloating, loudly.
90+4 min As it stands, Spurs are second in the league.
90+2 min Richarlison may well have won the match! With the subtlest of flicks. A shot came curling in from the edge of the box and he saw that it needed a finishing touch.
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GOAL! Spurs 2-1 Man United (Richarlison 90+1)
Lads, this is not Tottenham.
90 min There will be six more minutes, and it looks like being a siege.
89 min Chance for Tel! This time he fluffs his lines, scuffing a left-foot volley.
88 min Odobert breaks free down the left and whips in a good cross, which is headed clear, superbly, by Luke Shaw.
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87 min Sesko is now hobbling off! So United are down to ten men.
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86 min Great defending! Sesko, near the penalty spot, has to score – until Van de Ven pulls off a textbook tackle. He doesn’t just score wonder goals.
85 min In fact it was two subs. Odogie, overlapping on the left, sent in a low cross and Tel did three things right – a classy first touch, a show of strength to hold off his old Bayern team-mate De Ligt, and a crisp shot that perhaps took a deflection.
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GOAL! Spurs 1-1 Man United (Tel 84)
A sub makes all the difference!
82 min United are playing on the counter now and playing better because it suits them. Mbeumo sends a lovely through ball, on the turn, to Dalot, who can’t do much with it.
78 min Amorim sees that sub and sends on one of his own – Diogo Dalot for Patrick Dorgu at left wing-back. That’s all five subs used for United, unlike last Saturday at Forest when Amorim was strangely passive.
78 min Thomas Frank makes another substitution, sending on Mathys Tel, taking off Xavi Simons and prompting loud boos from the home fans. Simons played well, so maybe he has a niggle.
74 min Meanwhile, in the WSL, the big game has finished in a draw, as Alessia Russo saved the day for Arsenal. Go here for elegant coverage of that game from Rob Smyth.
74 min Free kick to United on the left. Fernandes drills it in, but the ball bobbles kindly for Vicario.
74 min As it stands, Manchester United are second in the league (albeit with the next few teams yet to play). Are you old enough to remember when this was perfectly normal?
73 min Another glimmer of hope for Sesko as Mbeumo’s flick sends him through, but the flag is up.
72 min United subs, three of them! Mount for Cunha, Yoro for Maguire (who seems to have an injury) and most significantly Ugarte for Casemiro, who, as usual, departs with United ahead.
70 min Out of nowhere, Fernandes storms into the box, only to spray his shot towards Row Z.
69 min Benjamin Sesko has touched the ball! He executes a nice spin and picks up a through ball from Dorgu … but nothing comes of it.
69 min Spurs get into the United box again, but there’s some dogged defending and they can’t get a shot in.
67 min Spurs’ second sub is going to be Destiny Udogie, replacing Pedro Porro and presumably sending Djed Spence from left-back to right. United will be happy to see the back of Porro’s crosses.
65 min The VAR is checking for a penalty against Harry Maguire … but decides the handball was accidental.
64 min Lammens plays sweeper-keeper to clear. He’s been United’s best player in this half. They are looking scrappy, Spurs suddenly commanding.
62 min Disallowed goal! Johnson finds the net as usual against United as Richarlison’s plays a neat little through ball, but he was clearly offside.
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60 min Sesko has come on, replacing Mazraoui, so Amad reverts to right wing-back. For the moment, Mbeumo stays at inside-left with Cunha shunting across to inside-right. It’s an attacking change, which is brave.
59 min Suddenly United have space and time in midfield. Fernandes chips a through ball to Mbeumo and Dorgu races past on the overlap, but his cross goes for a goal kick.
58 min United are threatening to throw it away as they did at Forest. Amorim’s solution is to abandon his strikerless shape and send on Sesko.
56 min Another fine save from Lammens! A free kick to Spurs, 40 yards out, leads to a smart shot from Palhinha, which Lammens does well to see, let alone parry.
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54 min Save! Surs respond by applying some pressure at last, and a fine flick by Romero must surely go in – until Lammens somehow gets a hand to it. He’s been a big part of United’s improvement.
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53 min The crowd are sounding restless now. According to Darren Fletcher – the commentator, not the United youth boss – there were some boos at half-time.
50 min There’s a lull as Casemiro goes down in pain after being clattered by Spence. He’s soon on his feet. United’s recent record with him on the field is strikingly good: if it wasn’t for Mbeumo’s blazing form, he would be their player of the season so far.
48 min A gorgeous ball from Fernandes sets Dorgu free down the left. He finds Cunha, whose low cross finds … nobody at all.
47 min Harry Maguire gets a great touch in as a better cross heads for Richarlison, now playing in the middle. The flag was up anyway.
46 min United kick off, but it’s Spurs who push forward as Simons becomes their latest player to overhit a cross.
Thomas Frank has seen enough of his front two. He takes Kolo Muani off and sends on Wilson Odobert.
HALF-TIME! Spurs 0-1 Man United
Spurs do get forward, but Porro’s chip-cross is overcooked. And so United still lead, something they have never done before in three meetings with Spurs under Ruben Amorim. The only shot on target so far, Bryan Mbeumo’s crisp header, is the difference between two well-matched sides.
45 min There will be just the one extra minute. Time for Spurs to register a shot on target?
44 min Kolo Muani, on the right, runs at Dorgu and almost leaves him on the floor, only to find Dorgu shoving the ball out for a corner.
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42 min Bentancur is warming up for Spurs, which may be a sign that Thomas Frank can see his midfield not working. Casemiro has stood out for United, covering a lot of ground for a senior citizen and so often passing forwards.
38 min A caption just now showed that the two players seeing the least of the ball have been Richarlison and Kolo Muani. The team with no out-and-out striker on the field is beating the one with two of them.
37 min The goal reflects well on Amorim, who sprang a surprise by shifting Mbeumo to the left. It seemed as if he was breaking up a promising partnership with Amad, but no, it’s given United the lead.
35 min United get in the area again, twice, without finding a shot.
33 min As Spurs got a bit Spursy at the back, failing to clear, United strung together some touches in the box for the first time today. The first cross was a poor one from Cunha but the second, from Amad, was a peach. It went straight to the bald head of Mbeumo and he placed his header beautifully, in the corner.
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GOAL! Spurs 0-1 United (Mbeumo 32)
We have lift-off!
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30 min As the half-hour comes up, we still haven’t had a shot on target. Xavi Simons has looked bright for Spurs, Mbeumo for United, but the touchpaper has yet to be lit.
29 min The first card goes to Brennan Johnson, for waving his handbag at De Ligt before the corner is taken. Johnson collects a yellow to go with his red from the other night.
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28 min From the corner, United counter. Mbeumo send a hopeful ball forward to Amad, who does well to win a corner as Spence dashes back.
27 min Mazraoui and Amad dovetail crisply on United’s right, but the cross from Mazraoui isn’t clinical enough. Spurs charge forward and win a corner as De Ligt would rather be safe than sorry.
25 min Remember Harry Maguire turning into a right-winger in the Europa League last season? Now he’s dancing down the left! And getting a cross in, but Mbeumo can’t control it.
24 min From the resulting corner, United want a penalty as Richarlison clears, but neither the ref nor the VAR is convinced.
22 min Half-chance for United! Cunha controls a bobbling ball and gets a shot in, but it’s easily saved. He probably should have squared for Mbeumo, who was unmarked.
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20 min Van de Ven beats one man and an oooh of excitement goes round the ground. That’s all it takes now.
18 min United have two left-backs on the field, Shaw and Dorgu, but Spurs keep getting down that side. Amorim waves his arms, as well he may.
16 min Another good cross from Spurs, another failure to get on the end of it. This time the crosser is Johnson, the ball even better than the last one, and Richarlison is there or thereabouts – but he can’t get a touch.
15 min Good work by Richarlison, tracking into midfield, leads, eventually, to Porro having time and space on the right. He whips in a characteristically good cross which nobody can get on the end of, perhaps because Richarlison has dropped too deep.
14 min The ref, by the way, is Sam Barrott. When the game resumes, Shaw plays a lovely ball to Mbeumo, which doesn’t lead anywhere.
12 min Kolo Muani goes down and Harry Maguire waves to the ref, who stops the game.
We have an email! “As far as I can make out, the scarf in the photo at the top of the page says ‘Superspur’,” Kári Tulinius writes. “I’ve never heard that before. Is that a nickname for the Lilywhites that I just don’t know, or are the merchandising makers using AI to design their wares now?” I’m rather hoping that’s a rhetorical question.
9 min At the other end Brennan Johnson bursts into the box but can’t keep the ball under control. Spurs’ pace may well bother United’s back three, with no Leny Yoro there to bail out his elders.
8 min United half-chance! Bruno Fernandes wiggles forward and slips in Mbeumo, who plays a nice simple square ball – to nobody! Cunha needed to be there.
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6 min Formations update: Richarlison is on the left for Spurs, with Randal Kolo Muani upfront. And Bryan Mbeumo has started on the left for United, for the first time I think. He’s been playing so well that you’d back him anywhere, but it does mean that his partnership with Amad on the right is shelved, and he has to forge a new one with Patrick Dorgu.
3 min The corner is a deep one – too deep for Van de Ven, or anyone else.
2 min An early blooper from Senne Lammens, who lets a back-pass brush his boot and go for a corner.
1 min Spurs kick off, go back, go long and get an early shot in from Xavi Simons, blocked by Luke Shaw.
Members of the armed forces bring out wreaths and lay them on the centre circle. The crowd falls silent as a trumpeter plays The Last Post, filling the stadium with its mournful dignity.
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The players are out there and the TNT director is zooming in on Micky van de Ven, understandably after his wonder goal. He has six goals this season, more than any United player.
This will be the fifth time that Amorim has started with a middle four of Mazraoui, Casemiro, Fernandes and Dorgu, according to sources close to United Writing. They have had mixed results, losing on the road and winning at home. They lost at Chelsea, lost the Europa League final to Spurs, beat Villa at the end of last season and then beat Chelsea this season – but both those wins had a big hand from the opposing goalie, who was sent off.
Today’s front three – Amad, Cunha and Mbeumo – have never started a game as the front three before. They are the 27th different front three Amorim has picked in his year at United.
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Some thoughts from Thomas Frank. “It’s about getting that consistency in performances,” he argues. He can say that again, and no doubt he will. “Big game, we’re ready, we look forward to it… We thought to have Richi [Richarlison] and Kolo [Muani] together could be interesting, hopefully a game-changer.”
Hmmm … maybe he’s going 4-4-2.
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Other Guardian live blogs are available. Over on Matchday Live, Billy Munday is your host and Nick Ames is holding a Q&A loosely centred on this match.
If you’d rather have a little less conversation, a little more action, do join Rob Smyth for the big game in the Women’s Super League: Arsenal at home to Chelsea, starting any minute. My entire household has just set off for that one, festooned in scarves and replica shirts. Reader, I married a Gooner.
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Kobbie Mainoo is ruled out with a knock, which may have caused panic in the United hierarchy. For the past few weeks, he’s been the last vestige of the United youth system in the first-team squad, maintaining the club’s proud record of always having at least one Academy alumnus there on matchday for the past 88 years. His place on the bench goes to Jack Fletcher, son of Darren, so the record is safe for now.
Amorim says he doesn’t “want to be the guy” who breaks that chain. But he was quite prepared to be the guy who endangered it with a purge of the first team that homed in on home-grown stars – banishing Marcus Rashford, selling Alejandro Garnacho and marginalising Mainoo.
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Teams in full
On second thoughts, I suspect United’s false-ish 9 is Bryan Mbeumo, which would allow the other two forwards to play on their usual sides, Amad cutting in from the right and Cunha from the left. Diogo Dalot drops to the bench, so, with Kevin Danso among the subs for Spurs, there may be no long throws for the first hour.
Tottenham Hotspur (probable 4-2-3-1) Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Spence; Palhinha, Sarr; Johnson, Simons, Kolo Muani; Richarlison.
Subs: Kinsky, Udogie, Danso, Rowswell, Bentancur, Scarlett, Odobert, Tel, Akhamrich.
Manchester United (probable 3-4-2-1) Lammens; De Ligt, Maguire, Shaw; Mazraoui, Casemiro, Fernandes, Dorgu; Amad, Cunha; Mbeumo.
Subs: Bayindir, Yoro, Heaven, Ugarte, Dalot, Mount, J Fletcher, Zirkzee, Sesko.
Teams in brief: Frank picks two strikers
No striker for United, two for Spurs. Richarlison and Randal Kolo Muani both start, with one of them presumably playing on the left. Mohammed Kudus is unfit and Brennan Johnson is on the right, ready to reprise his role as United’s conqueror from the Europa League final.
Teams in brief: Sesko benched
After showing faith in Benjamin Sesko at his press conference, Ruben Amorim drops him to the bench. Usually that means Matheus Cunha playing as a false-ish 9 and Mason Mount coming in at inside-left, but this time the Mount role goes to Amad, with Noussair Mazraoui coming in at right wing-back. So both wing-backs are full-backs (Patrick Dorgu being the other one) and United are more defensive than they have been recently.
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Preamble
Morning everyone and welcome to the first Premier League game of the weekend. It’s the Sergio Reguilon derby! It’s a replay of the last Europa League final! It can’t be as boring as that was!
Say what you like about Spurs, they are Ruben Amorim’s bogey team (and he has a few of those). They may have won only three home games in the league in the past year, two of them against promoted teams, but the other one was against Amorim’s United (1-0). They have also left Amorim empty-handed in the League Cup (4-3) and that Europa final (another 1-0).
Last season these two famous clubs finished 15th and 17th in the Premier League, keeping each other company on the slide to incompetence. This season they have at least found their way back to respectability: Spurs are up 11 places to sixth while United are up seven to eighth.
But Spurs have only done well away and United, apart from their triumph at Anfield, have only done well at home. United, as soon as they leave Salford, are a mid-table team (tenth in the away table); Spurs, at their own stadium, are still a piece of mouldy cheese (17th in the home table). On form, we can probably expect both of them to lose today.
The good news for Amorim is that his nemesis, Ange Postecoglou, is no longer there to say “Lads, it’s United”. His Spurs hoodoo may have been just an Ange hoodoo. The bad news for Amorim is that since the start of last season Spurs have four wins over United with three clean sheets and a combined score of 9-3. And they have four players who scored twice in those games, although three of them are now injured – James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke. So Brennan Johnson may have to do it all by himself, just as he did in Bilbao.
Thomas Frank needs to decide who’s ready to go again after the 4-0 cruise past FC Copenhagen. Amorim, with no European fixtures to worry about, needs to decide whether to stick with the XI who could only draw at Forest. The sole meeting so far between these managers, at Brentford six months ago, finished 4-3 to Frank. Given that both United and Spurs overhauled their attack in the summer while keeping faith with their defence, something similar seems perfectly plausible.
The kick-off is at 12.30pm (GMT) and I’ll be back soon with the teams.
