Then and Now - Manchester United

We complete this week’s hectic schedule with a trip to Manchester United in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon (4.30pm kick-off).

A win at Old Trafford would make it a hat-trick of victories in the space of six days after a penalty shootout success over Chelsea in the League Cup on Tuesday night before we booked our place in the Europa League group stage on Thursday evening with a 7-2 triumph over Maccabi Haifa - our biggest win at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Ahead of Sunday’s visit to the north west, we take a look back at our previous outings against United before analysing all the key information and statistics ahead of our upcoming encounter, as well as the pre-match views from our opposition.

Manchester United v Spurs - then

There is usually a winner when we travel to Old Trafford. There hasn’t been a draw between the sides at the ‘Theatre of Dreams’ since 2005 - a 0-0 draw under Martin Jol in which Pedro Mendes’ goal was unforgettably disallowed.

That would have been our first victory in the competition against United at Old Trafford, instead we had to wait until September, 2012.

An own goal from Jonny Evans and a superb solo strike from Gareth Bale put us 2-0 up at the break. Then, just six minutes after the restart, there was an exchange of three goals between the sides in as many minutes. United pulled one back on 51 minutes before, just seconds later, Clint Dempsey reasserted our lead only for the home side to pull another goal back on 53 minutes. Yet, by the full-time whistle, the 3-2 advantage was enough to seal maximum points in the north west.

On our next visit, we repeated the trick as Christian Eriksen set up Emmanuel Adebayor for our first before the Dane nipped in with a header to double our lead in the second period. Danny Welbeck grabbed a quick goal back for the home side, but it proved just a consolation as we once again tasted success at Old Trafford.

Then, at the start of the 2018/19 season, we then enjoyed a very memorable night under the lights as we stormed to a 3-0 victory. Harry Kane got his first goal at the iconic stadium to open the scoring with a well-placed header but, by full time, the plaudits went the way of Lucas Moura. The Brazilian trickster had joined us seven months earlier from Paris Saint-Germain, but it was perhaps on that night at the 'Theatre of Dreams' where he truly arrived into English football as he carved United’s defence open on two occasions to deliver us three points on an unforgettable night in Manchester.

Our most recent meeting with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side came in June earlier this year in the first game back of the Premier League restart. That was a 1-1 draw with Steven Bergwijn scoring our opener before a late Bruno Fernandes penalty saw a share of the spoils.

Here are our most recent results against Manchester United...

19 June, 2020 – Spurs 1-1 Manchester United – Premier League
4 December, 2019 - Manchester United 2-1 Spurs - Premier League
13 January, 2019 - Spurs 0-1 Manchester United - Premier League (at Wembley)
27 August, 2018 - Manchester United 0-3 Spurs - Premier League
21 April, 2018 - Manchester 2-1 Spurs - FA Cup, semi-final (at Wembley)

Manchester United v Spurs - Now

Only two games into their Premier League campaign so far, having been given an extra week’s break following their Europa League exploits at the end of the 2019/20 season, United have had a mixed start. In their opening day match against Crystal Palace - their only home game of the season so far - they fell to a surprise 3-1 defeat. Yet, since that disappointing opener, the Red Devils have won each of their last three outings - the last two of which came away at Brighton with United firstly defeating the Seagulls 3-2 in the league before then enjoying a 3-0 win against the south coast outfit in the League Cup on Wednesday night.

One of United’s goalscorers in that 3-0 Carabao Cup win at the Amex Stadium, Scott McTominay, spoke ahead of our meeting on Sunday detailing how he expects the encounter to play out.

“The more expansive version of Spurs is difficult to play against. It’s not like you can go to Old Trafford and feel it’s nice and easy, they’ll come ready,” the midfielder discussed. “We know the manager, the staff and some of the world-class players they’ve got too, and they’ll be ready to come here and play better than they did last year, so we have to expect that.

“You look at their attacking players... Son, Lucas Moura, Harry Kane, with Kane coming in between the lines and them two running in behind… that’s a lot of pace. So, for us, it’s really important to focus on their biggest threats. They’ll definitely be worried about our threats as well. It's set up for a really important game.”

We head into Sunday’s clash continuing on a run of seven games without defeat - including tasting victory in both of our outings this week (Chelsea and Maccabi Haifa).

And so, while Jose Mourinho knows we face a difficult test at Old Trafford, he feels we are taking a lot of confidence into the encounter on the back of our recent results.

“We are confident, we are playing well,” he said. “I take this (Maccabi Haifa) game out of the analysis, but the previous three, two Premier League matches and the Chelsea game, were proper games, difficult matches, the team played very well so hopefully we can go to Old Trafford and do the same.

“United are a team full of great players. When I looked to their team at Brighton (Carabao Cup win in midweek) - and I don’t believe many of these players are going to play on Sunday - so many of my players were in that team, and in my team they were fundamental players in the team, now they are secondary players in the team. So, they have lots of good players, it’s going to be, of course, a difficult match, but I also don’t think it is going to be easy for them.”