Well, who saw that one coming?
Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United homecoming was ruined by his former club at Old Trafford on Wednesday night – as his new Tottenham Hotspur team fell to a 2-1 defeat. And in truth, it could’ve been more. Lots, lots more.
Here’s how a hugely entertaining game went down on that thing we call social media. Well, Twitter.
We’re going to start off with a nice little video of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer meeting the man he succeeded in the home dugout. Look how nice they’re being to each other.
After they’d met indoors, it was soon time to get down to business.
For one of the teams at least.
Tottenham didn’t turn up, and the hosts really did. It didn’t take them long to break through either, as Marcus Rashford slammed a shot at Paulo Gazzaniga’s near post and saw it trickle in. The 22-year-old made a superb start to the game, was voted man of the match, and earned his first reward early on.
It really was a crappy attempt at a save, mind.
United were on fire, mate, and Rashford was leading the charge. He was shooting for fun in the first half an hour, and saw himself denied by the opposition goalkeeper a couple of times – with one of his efforts smashing the crossbar.
Daniel James – who started on the right – was as busy as ever too, and after getting crunched by Harry Winks in a tackle he fell at the feet of…you guessed it…Jose. DJ’s head, meet Jose’s knee, or shin, or whatever part of his body was hit.
The notoriously streetwise (cheers Giggsy) James doesn’t do head injuries for long though, and he was back up soon after to continue United’s charge to certain victory.
United were playing really, really well. And Tottenham had not even bothered turning up.
So you know what that means, right?
Of course you do.
Perhaps not too many could’ve expected this type of worldie skill from Dele Alli (even if he’s been in top notch form in recent weeks) but they could expect United to defend the goal terribly and to concede very easily after being on top of the game for the entire time preceding it.
You might’ve expected Spurs – who scored just a few minutes before half time – to really step things up, but they simply didn’t kick on and reverted back to their terribly passive football that had been synonymous with Jose’s final months managing that night’s opposition.
Passive is probably the word. And Moussa Sissoko’s defending was all kinds of that as he fouled Rashford in the box early in the second half.
Penalty. Converted. 2-1.
And that, really, was kind of it. Tottenham were no match for United’s desire on this night, and should be disappointed with how they performed.
The biggest scare for United fans came just after 9pm, as Solskjaer made the decision to bring off Mason Greenwood for Andreas Pereira.
Tottenham were beaten, and United have now leapfrogged them in the table. It’s a big win for the fans, for the Glazers, for Marcus Rashford and Fred (who was brilliant btw) and most of all, it’s a big win for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who topped off the night with THIS.
Lots of work to do for Jose Mourinho.