Spurs sink Man United to 15th Palace with 1-nil Victory. Image: Tottenham Hostspur shared via X.
(The Post News)– Tottenham Hotspur defeated Manchester United on Sunday, winning 1-0 in a contest of underachievers. During the 13th minute, James Maddison scored the only goal of the match, marking Spurs‘ third victory over the Red Devils this season and moving them up to 12th place in the table, while Man United dropped to 15th place.
With their poor league standing and elimination from both domestic cup tournaments this month, victory relieved pressure on Ange Postecoglou, the under-fire Tottenham manager. Although United is currently in 15th place, they still have a 12-point lead over the bottom three.
Tottenham’s supporters revolted during their team’s first home league victory since November. Spurs supporters once more expressed their dissatisfaction at owners ENIC and chairman Daniel Levy prior to kickoff. “24 years, 16 managers, 1 trophy—Time for change” was displayed on a large banner as a sizable portion of the home crowd joined a demonstration demanding that Levy be fired.
But even before the game started, Postecoglou’s spirits were raised by the fact that he could welcome back a number of first-team regulars who had been injured. Along with Maddison, goalie Guglielmo Vicario made his first appearance since November in the starting lineup. Wilson Odobert, Brennan Johnson, and Destiny Udogie were benched.
With Kobbie Mainoo sidelined for a month and Amad Diallo joining Lisandro Martinez on the sidelines for the remainder of the season, United had their own injury issues. Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee had to start together up front after both were left out of United’s most recent league game, a 2-0 loss to Crystal Palace, and Amorim was forced to select eight teenagers out of his nine substitutes.
Before the Italian flew to his left to deny Alejandro Garnacho, Hojlund had the first opportunity when he fired too near to Vicario. Spurs lead instead, as Maddison scored his 10th goal of the season by tapping into an empty net after Andre Onana was only able to parry Lucas Bergvall’s attempt into his path. After being picked out by Bruno Fernandes, Garnacho blazed over a fantastic opportunity with just Vicario to beat, giving United a chance to tie the score at halftime.
After the interval, Vicario made another excellent save to further irritate Garnacho. Twenty minutes from the end, Zirkzee had a great opportunity to equalise when the Dutch international headed a cross from Noussair Mazraoui over with the goal gaping. However, it is not surprising that United is unable to score.
United has scored 28 goals in 25 league games this season, more than any other team save Everton and the bottom three. At the other end, Onana parried a strong effort from Dejan Kulusevski to keep the visitors in the match. However, Amorim’s team was unable to break through Spurs’ temporary defence, which could have given Postecoglou hope.
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