Even without Harry Kane, Tottenham held the upper hand for much of this closely contested game, though Manchester United are no mugs under Jose Mourinho and they stuck grimly to their task to pick up an important win with a late Anthony Martial goal. That is not to suggest the match was grim, though scoreless for 82 minutes it was nothing like as barren as United’s draw at Anfield a fortnight ago, but two good sides were cancelling each other out until Spurs were undone by a long ball from the back.
United have still not conceded a goal in five league games here. Whether they would have done with Kane on the pitch is a matter of debate, but what is not is that Martial is an effective substitute. For the fourth time this season he came on to score, this time winning the game in his 20-minute cameo. There were a few audible grumbles when Marcus Rashford had to make way, but, as Mourinho explained, the two players offer different qualities. “Martial is more comfortable dropping in between the lines to help drive the ball and not just attack space,” he said. “I told him to do that and to play off Lukaku, which is what he did.”
The sides employed similar formations with three at the back, though Tottenham were that little bit better at playing out from that area of the pitch. The visitors made better use of the ball all over the pitch throughout the first half with Christian Eriksen, Dele Alli and Harry Winks all possessing a subtlety and invention in passing that the home side mostly lacked.
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For all that there was little danger of the deadlock being broken before the interval. Eric Dier made a good tackle in the area to stop Rashford in his tracks early on and when the ball broke to Romelu Lukaku he missed the target spectacularly, whether his intention was a shot or a cross. Rashford registered United’s best attempt on goal in the first half, significantly with a free-kick from a long way out, and though Hugo Lloris dived to his right to save the ball looked to be going wide of the post anyway.
At the other end Spurs’ tidy approach worked tended to fizzle out by the time it reached Heung-min Son, notionally deployed as a striker, though Dier finally managed to bring a save from David de Gea on the stroke of half time with a weakly hit shot. De Gea’s goal had been in greater danger a few minutes earlier when he collided with Phil Jones in claiming a cross and spilled the ball, only for Moussa Sissoko to snatch at his brief chance and send his shot high into the Stretford End.
United applied more pressure in the second half and succeeded in keeping Spurs pinned back for a while, though the end result was only a fiercely hit drive from Antonio Valencia from the edge of the area that was always clearing the crossbar.
Spurs sent on Mousa Dembele to try and restore some midfield control, United responded with Jesse Lingard for Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Martial for Rashford. The last was slightly surprising, since Rashford was probably causing the Spurs defence the most problems, though Martial was almost instantly involved in helping set up a chance for Lukaku and the favour would be returned before the end.
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When Valencia went into the book for diving in search of a penalty it began to look as if a goal would never arrive on another of Manchester’s wettest afternoons, yet both sides played their part in an eventful last 10 minutes. Alli ghosted on to a delightful diagonal ball from Eriksen for what looked a likely winner but could not quite get his feet in the right position to beat De Gea from close range, then at the other end Lukaku struck the post with a header from Lingard’s cross.
You would still have put money on a scoreless draw, but in the nick of time United came up with a textbook route one winner. De Gea launched the ball upfield, Lukaku beat Toby Alderweireld to the first header, which left Martial running clear into the area to shoot past Lloris. Who needs midfields anyway? As Mourinho has demonstrated on any number of occasions, there is more than one way of winning a match.