Tottenham Hotspur Remind Manchester United Of What They Once Were

Manchester United’s capitulation at White Hart Lane immediately saw a famous Sir Alex Ferguson quote regarding Spurs do the rounds on social media. But this time it had been spun on its head.

To get those of you who missed it up to date, in Roy Keane’s autobiography the midfielder recalls a story when Manchester United were losing to Tottenham at half-time. Rather than giving a lengthy lecture to try and inspire his troops, Sir Alex Ferguson walked in and simply uttered, “Lads, it’s Tottenham.”

United went on to win the game.

I think we can all admit that the tables have now firmly turned. On Sunday, with the game evenly poised and only twenty minutes left on the clock, Tottenham Hotspur clinically obliterated Manchester United in a five minute and 45 second flash that ended up with Spurs three goals to the good and back in the title race while their timid opposition were left to mourn their hopes of qualifying for next year’s Champions League.

It was the sort of devastating blitz that Manchester United had themselves performed against Tottenham on numerous occasions over the last decade, most memorably when they turned over three and two goal first half deficits in 2001 and 2009 by scoring five in the second halves.

It was the most vivid reminder yet of just how far Manchester United have fallen in recent years. Not too long ago clawing back a 4-point gap to Manchester City with five games left would have still seemed doable. But not with this Manchester United team, who were once again painfully pedestrian against Spurs.

Tottenham’s ascendancy only adds to United fans’ frustrations. Mauricio Pochettino and Louis Van Gaal went into their jobs at White Hart Lane and Old Trafford during the same summer.

But while Tottenham are a side on the up, whose strengths and style are both obvious and impressive, Manchester United seem lost in a sea of mediocrity. Louis Van Gaal’s baby-steps have devolved into a crawl, and the general sense of bewilderment surrounding the club was summed up when Ashley Young, a winger, replaced Marcus Rashford as United’s lone-striker against Spurs.

At White Hart Lane, only Anthony Martial on the left wing and Timothy Fosu-Mensah at right back were the bright sparks for Manchester United. Everything in between was a mishmash of underwhelming and uninspiring. Except David De Gea, who once again worked miracles in goal to keep United respectable.

Obviously that’s not good enough. And with Manchester United now on the cusp of failing to qualify for the Champions League for the second time in three seasons, it looks likely that the club’s executives will now decide that the same can be said of Louis Van Gaal.

Missing out on the competition is just too costly for a club that should be contending with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich on a yearly basis, but have instead now been eclipsed by a side that they used to condescendingly dismiss with an arrogance that has now completely diminished.

[Images via Getty/Ian Walton]