Tottenham Hotspur 0-3 Manchester United: 5 talking points as Ronaldo sizzles in emphatic win | Premier League 2021-22
Manchester United returned to winning ways in the Premier League with a comfortable 3-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday. Goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani and Marcus Rashford condemned Spurs to their fifth league defeat of the season.
The hosts struggled throughout the game, failing to register a single shot on target. Tottenham looked unorganised, and lacked purpose going forward, with Son Hueng-Min doing most of their heavy lifting in the final third.
Bouncing back with a big ๐.
Up the Reds! ๐ด
#MUFC | #TOTMUN
Ronaldo opened the scoring in spectacular fashion, converting a close-range volley in the 39th minute. But the game had seen a few chances up to that point. Spurs saw a goal ruled out by VAR in the 28th minute before Hugo Loris made a great save off Fred's long-range effort.
Manchester United thought they opened the scoring in the second half when Ronaldo beat Hugo Lloris to Scott McTominay's pas. But he was denied by the assistant referee's offside flag, a decision that was upheld by VAR.
United soon bagged their second goal of the night following a swift counter-attack. Ronaldo spotted Cavani's run, and delivered a perfectly-weighted pass for the Uruguayan striker, who made no mistake in beating Lloris.
Two second-half substitutes, Nemanja Matic and Marcus Rashford combined for the third of the night to seal the game. Rashford scored a typical goal after making a great run, beating the keeper with a right-footed finish.
On that note, here's a look at the five talking points from the game:
#5 Changed formation helps improve Manchester United's efficiency
Sometimes little tweaks end up making a huge difference for the team. A small tweak in the formation worked well for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's team on the night. He switched to a 3-4-2-1 formation against Spurs. That allowed United mobility down the flanks and also three solid centre-halves ahead of David de Gea.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Luke Shaw were pushed up the flanks, Fred and McTominay won their tackles, which helped Bruno Fernandes dictate the play and create a few chances for United.
Many teams across Europe prefer a three-at-the-back system nowadays. So Solskjaer might wish to stick with this one for a while.
#4 Tottenham Hotspur fans let their frustration known
Tottenham were toothless against Manchester United, and it was just another disappointing display in a series of poor performances by them in recent weeks. While it was Solskjaer whose job was on the line,needing a win here, Nuno Espirito Santo faced some backlash from his fans on the night.
๐ณ @SpursOfficial had 0 shots on target against @ManUtd. https://t.co/OH1ZsHXkRC
The home fans were noisy throughout the game, but became especially vocal when Nuno took off Lucas Moura and brought in Steven Bergwijn. The fans chanted: 'You don't know what you're doing'.
Though the decision to substitute Moura might not have been a wrong one, fans aren't happy with how things are going at Spurs at the moment.