It was a day to forget for Mauricio Pochettino, his squad and anyone associated with the club. A morbid performance by the Lilywhites leaves them a disappointing 7th place in the BPL table whilst Manchester United maintain 4th position in their effort to secure Champions League football for the 15/2016 season.
Match Review:
Many would agree this result was due to both Manchester United's best performance of the season and quite possibly Spurs' worst. A calamatous defensive show, coupled with slow, lackluster passing, left Pochettino's side exposed at the back and allowed the Red Devils to put 3 past the visitors.
Although United's football hasn't been the prettiest this season, and that trend didn't change during this fixture, they are doing the simple things well; and to great effect.
The inital exchanges of the match left United looking like there was a lack of confidence in the team as Phil Jones completed a string of shaky errors, firing a horrible back pass to United keeper David De Gea, who had to save the pass to stop it going into his own net. However, after this initial blunder, the game was all Manchester United's.
United began to gain some momentum with a collection of intelligent passes, Michael Carrick slotted the ball through a gaping hole in Spurs' defence, left by Eric Dier, to Marouane Fellaini who was able to finish emphatically with his left-foot across the face of Hugo Lloris's goal and into the right-hand corner.
The rest of the first half belonged solely to United, with Tottenham barely able to get a look in. The dominance of the home side resulted in 2 more goals from Carrick and Rooney, respectively.
Spurs let their heads drop after the first goal, let alone the two that followed, after half time the North Londoners looked just as flat and stale as they had in the first half, however United allowed them some respite; happy to sit on their laurels, the home side failed to score again and the match closed a woeful afternoon for Tottenham at 3-0 to the Reds.
Where did it all go wrong for Pochettino and Tottenham?
Marouane Fellaini. Fellaini was awarded man of the match and rightly so. The big Belgian terrorised the Spurs backline throughout the game until his substitution in the 83'. Not only did he score the opener to give United the confidence to kill the game, but Tottenham simply couldn't deal with his strength and power. Both Eric Dier and Jan Vertonghen were bullied by the towering midfielder as Fellaini continued to win knock down after knock down to supply the more creative players around him. The ex-Evertonian was influencial in United's first two goals, scoring the first, but also creating the opportunity for the second. The versatile attacking midfielder is looking like he is returning to the form he showed whilst at Everton, and this was wholely evident today, when he's up for a scrap, he can cause any team a wealth of problems.