In the 10th round of the Premier League, Manchester United visited the new White Hart Lane stadium to challenge Tottenham, Cristiano Ronaldo scored a shot and a pass in the first half, Cavani scored his first goal of the season, Rashford added the icing on the cake, and the Red Devils won 3-0. After winning, Manchester United overtook their opponents in the table and rose back to 5th place, eight points behind Chelsea at the top of the table, but the point difference with Manchester City and Liverpool narrowed to 3 and 5 points.
After the double defeat, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made drastic changes to United's starting line-up, using a 352 formation, with Mason Greenwood and Marcus Rashford relegated to the bench. De Gea guarded the goal, Varane returned with Maguire and Lindlev, midfielders were Wan Bissaka, McTomine, Bruno Fernandez, Fred and Luke Shaw, and Ronaldo paired with Cavani as a double striker.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said: "We have a couple of more experienced players to play, and the team needs experience and a solid foundation to be able to perform, and that is the main reason. We need to control the game, whether there's the ball in or not, if you have players in different positions, we need to take advantage of the whole width of the pitch and now that's the wing-back's responsibility. We have players like Cristiano (Ronaldo) and Edinson (Cavani) on the pitch and they're going to be in the box together, so we need to deliver the cross."
Both teams lost the last round and started the game more cautiously, first solidifying the defence and only having their first shot on goal in the 5th minute, completed by Tottenham's Son Heung-min. United were assisted by Wan Bissaka's assist Cavani, who was blocked by a defender. After United changed sides, the players were more active from the back, McTomine was tripped by Romero when he entered the box, referee Stuart Artwell ignored him, and he served as the VAR video assistant referee in the last round of the double red, prompting Manchester United's Pogba to be sent off.
The two sides entered a state of mutual attack and defense, Son Heung-min counter-offside right foot outside the instep of the ball, the ball was high over the crossbar, Fernandez also broke through the offside trap, sent a cross from the right, Cavani's header was deflected. In the 28th minute, Spurs scored a goal through a corner kick, but when Dale's header crossed, the center-back partner Romero, who hit the goal, was offside and the goal was invalid.
Fred fired a brilliant long-range shot and Lowry flew off the line. In a corner kick attack, Maguire complained that Romero was dragging himself, and the referee did not think it constituted a foul. Son Heung-min almost formed a single knife, but fortunately Wan Bissaka returned to complete the block in time, and the referee signaled that Tottenham Hotspur was offside.
In the 39th minute of the game, Cristiano Ronaldo scored for Manchester United. After a series of cooperation in front of the penalty area, Fernandes sent a top pass, C Ronaldo's right rib direct volley, the ball flew into the far corner of the goal, Tottenham Hotspur 0-1 Manchester United, the Portuguese superstar broke the Premier League goal drought.
Ronaldo, who scored three goals in the first two premier league rounds after his return to Manchester United, has been a flop in the last four league rounds, equaling the longest four goals drought suffered by Real Madrid in November 2017. The last time he kept a clean sheet in more than five rounds was when he didn't score in nine games at Manchester United from November 2008 to January 2009, and this goal against Tottenham avoided a repeat of the mistake.
In addition, Spurs are also the Premier League team with the most goals scored by Cristiano Ronaldo, which is his 11th goal against the team in all competitions, and Ronaldo chose to slip on his knees to celebrate.
United returned to the dressing room with a 1-0 lead in the first half, and after restarting the ball, De Gea made a mistake on goal and Son Heung-min's long-range shot was deflected wide. Subsequently, McTomine cleverly passed Ronaldo, who exploded into the net, but unfortunately was blown off first due to offside.
In the 64th minute, Manchester United extended their lead, Fernandez broke the ball in midfield, C Ronaldo received the ball and went straight to the top, Cavani circuitous running position to ensure that there was no offside, and then single-handedly picked out the goal to score his first goal of the season, Tottenham Hotspur 0-2 Manchester United. The goal reflected Uruguay's excellent running and shooting skills, and he and Ronaldo's "2C combination" with a total age of 70 years old, a bright spark.
Interestingly, this is the 12th time that Cristiano Ronaldo has achieved a pass in a Premier League match, and 3 of them have been achieved against Tottenham Hotspur, which can be called the "white lily killer".
After locking up the win, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer replaced Ronaldo, Fernandez and Cavani with Rashford, Nemanja Matic and Jesse Lingard to prepare for two games next week. In the 86th minute, Manchester United completely sealed the victory, McTomine broke the ball in midfield, Nemanja Matic's direct pass, Rashford single-handed low shot into the far corner, Spurs 0-3 Manchester United.
The outcome of this red-and-white battle is not unexpected, Manchester United are the absolute Tottenham hotteras, and the white lily have lost to Manchester United 37 times in Premier League history, the most of all teams. United have been unbeaten in their last four visits to North London and have beaten Tottenham Hotspur three times, ending their previous winless record of 3 draws and 3 defeats.
Not only that, but United and Tottenham have met in the last seven Premier League encounters, and the home team has won only once, which was the Red Devils' 2-1 win at Old Trafford in December 2019, and this game has continued the same script.
United's recent record has been poor, with 3 losses and 1 draw in 4 Premier League games and the previous 37 rounds of losses (23 wins, 11 draws and 3 losses). Winning the game ended a 4-game winless and avoiding another defeat. The last time the Reds suffered a three-game losing streak in the league was in December 2015, when the manager was Louis van Gaal.
The data shows that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer used a three-centre-back tactic and United achieved a record of 6 wins, 2 draws and 4 defeats. Although it seems that there are 7 defensive players in the formation, it has achieved an offensive and defensive balance to ensure that the defensive line is solid, although there are only 3 pure attacking players on the field, but they have world-class level, and in the tepid scenes, they have created key points with their ability.
It turns out that the manager is not superstitious about the stars, and does not force all the geniuses such as Rashford, Greenwood, and Sancho into a lineup, and the tactical effect is better. Because more team players, like Cavani, are willing to perform their duties and perform defensive and running duties, Manchester United has instead achieved a combination of edge and middle, a combination of long and short and a combination of fast and slow, and the offensive means are more abundant.
United have conceded 10 goals in the Premier League in October, the worst in the league, conceding more goals in just two months of their history, including 11 goals in October 1996 and December 2018. United have conceded more than four goals in two consecutive rounds, and if they scored four more goals, they would equal the worst record of more than four goals conceded in three consecutive games in December 1961. But the coach avoided this awkward situation by restoring his better defensive counter-attack formation.
Manchester United beat Tottenham 2-0, only the second time this season to achieve a clean sheet, but compared to the last time to rely on De Gea to save Wolves, this time the goal is really from the overall play. Spurs shot zero shots in the whole game, and De Gea easily won a clean sheet.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer also used the win to defuse the crisis and send opponent manager Nuno Santo to a more critical end-of-the-road draw. After United's three-goal win, the club is absolutely unlikely to sack the DNA-possessed manager in the short term, while Santo coached Tottenham Hotspur in the first 10 rounds, 5-5, and the only person in the history of the team to lose more than 4 of the first 10 Premier League games was Christian Gross in the 1997/98 season.
However, whether the defensive counter-attack tactic can once again become the main tactic of Manchester United is still questionable in the long run, because it means that many big names in the attacking line, including Sancho, who has been introduced for 73 million, will be completely reduced to a substitute, and in the long run, Solskjaer needs to calm the emotions of many players, which is a major challenge to the ability to manage personnel.