Premier League: Ange’s Spurs Sniff a Chance to Beat Red Devils

Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester United

He’s announced himself as a lover of England cricket’s ‘Bazball’ approach and Spurs head coach Ange Postecoglou has already endeared himself to the fans with his positive attitude to life and football.

Tottenham Hotspur have entered a new era, they have a different type of manager to the recent incumbents in North London and talisman Harry Kane has left for Munich, but one big factor remains; Spurs have been without a trophy in 15 years.

Is Postecoglou the man to deliver a cup? Time will tell; but it looks like it may be more fun for Tottenham fans as their team tries, and Premier League: Spurs vs Manchester United is a chance for the new man in the dugout to get more support in the stands. His first match in charge yielded an entertaining 2-2 draw with Brentford, while Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United squeezed past Wolves on Monday night with a 1-0 victory.

This is a clash between two sides with top four aspirations and so that makes it a six pointer, and a great match for us neutrals to get stuck into.    

Talking Points

Can Tottenham thrive without Kane? 

Spurs’ opening day match against Brentford was a good test of the North Londoners’ pre-season preparations and their ability to live in a post Kane world. The England star has been a scoring sensation in North London, plundering 213 goals in 317 games but the reality is that in his 16 years with Spurs the club has won nothing. 

And in recent seasons, chairman Daniel Levy has turned to some well known and highly successful pragmatists, Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, and to a lesser extent Nuno Espirito Santo, in an attempt to prize the trophy cabinet open. But they all failed, and they also failed to entertain the fans, and that is what Postecoglou aims to rectify, in a swashbuckling style akin to the England cricket team.

Without a domineering centre forward Spurs will have to adapt and try to emulate teams which score goals from all over the pitch, the best exponents of that art being Manchester City and Spurs’ North London rivals Arsenal. Against Brentford Tottenham dominated possession and won the shot count by 18 to 11, both teams recording six shots on target. And Tottenham’s defenders contributed the goals; centre back Cristian Romero opened the scoring and wingback Emerson Royal scored the leveller.

These are early days for the new Spurs head coach, but the signs are encouraging.   

Rusty Red Devils yet to convince

Manchester United’s opener at home to Wolves looked, on paper, to be a dead cert home win but the Red Devils played like the underdogs for much of the game. They conceded 23 shots and six on target while only recording 15 and three themselves. And this was against a team widely tipped for relegation following upheaval at Molineux. 

The top class defensive partnership of Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez earned a shut out, with the help of an incredible miss by Wolves striker Matheus Cunha, and Varane headed home a late winner. And a bizarre decision not to award Wolves a penalty in the dying moments confounded the visitors further. United keeper Andre Onana failed to claim the ball and smashed into Wolves forward Sasa Kalajdzic and, remarkably, the referee didn’t point to the spot. It was equally astonishing that VAR declined to intervene as you will hardly ever see a more obvious error.

The decision did hand the Red Devils three welcome points and Ten Hag knows his team needs to step up and win games for themselves.

History

In the Premier League era the Red Devils have won exactly two-thirds of their meetings with Tottenham, winning 44 of the head to head Spurs vs Manchester United results from a total of 66 encounters. There have been 12 draws and ten Tottenham wins, while the corresponding result last season ended in a 2-2 draw. 

Spurs last home win against Manchester United came in 2018.

In terms of pre-season and opening day form, the Whites are a little stronger with three wins, one draw and two defeats from their last six outings while the Red Devils have won two, drawn one and lost three.   

Betting Tip

At a SBOTOP price of 2.27 the pre-match Spurs vs Manchester United betting odds make the visitors marginal favourites to win this match but the opening day performances of either team hardly bare that up. 

Spurs at priced at 2.60 and the draw is at 3.30 and my prediction is that one of those two offers will pay out.

 

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