Manchester United 2-2 Spurs

The report in full...

Twice we had to come from behind, Richarlison scoring his sixth goal in seven games to cancel out Rasmus Hojlund’s early opener before Rodrigo Bentancur struck within a minute of the restart after Marcus Rashford had put the hosts 2-1 up.

It was Richarlison’s goal that set the new record as we bettered our previous runs of 32 matches set in 1949 and 1962, while we also gave debuts to new signings Timo Werner and Radu Dragusin in a game in which we dominated possession but just couldn’t find that elusive winner.

The hosts took just three minutes to open the scoring as Bruno Fernandes scooped the ball wide to Rashford who broke into the area, Destiny Udogie halted his progress but it broke to Hojlund and he smashed it left-footed into the roof of the net.

Our response was decent and we were level in the 19^th minute, but not before Diego Dalot had cleared Bentancur’s header off the line from a corner. In fact, it was a corner from which we equalised, nice and simple as Pedro Porro delivered the ball into a dangerous area and Richarlison got up to glance a header into the far corner.

Even after the goal, we had a real grip on the game with plenty of possession although we weren’t really creating chances while United were a threat on the counter and almost regained the lead on 38 minutes when Rashford floated in a cross which was over the head of Hojlund but Udogie, attempting to clear, headed the ball against his own post and we cleared our lines. But only briefly, as the home side came again when Rashford played a one-two with Hojlund and managed to take the return in a congested area and slide the ball into the far corner.

Rashford was in again shortly after but cut back onto his right foot deep inside the area allowing Bentancur the chance to nick the ball away, while we almost went in level at the break from another corner, Cristian Romero powering a header against the crossbar from another dangerous Porro centre and United were able to clear.

However we only had to wait 50 seconds into the second half for the equaliser! Romero played a fine ball out of defence in to Oliver Skipp, he found Werner out on the left who held it up before sliding a pass in to the advancing Bentancur and the midfielder shifted the ball onto his left foot before rifling it past Andre Onana.

Again we enjoyed good spells of possession but again, United always carried a threat on the break and substitute Scott McTominay drilled just wide on one such counter-attack.

The final half-hour saw a more even contest although there wasn’t a great deal to shout about in terms of clear-cut opportunities with neither goalkeeper really tested.

New signing Dragusin was given his first taste of English football when he came on in the 85^th minute, while the home side probably should have stolen the points in the final minute of stoppage time as Alejandro Garnacho delivered a cross for McTominay, unmarked eight yards out, but he headed over the bar.

Team news saw Ange Postecoglou make four changes to the side with Werner handed his debut from the start - earning Legacy Number 881 - while we welcomed back Romero and Micky van de Ven, who teamed up again in central defence for the first time since 6 November, when the latter picked up a hamstring injury. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg also came back in with Ben Davies, Giovani Lo Celso and Dejan Kulusevski all missing out, while former Spur Christian Eriksen returned for United. Dragusin’s late entrance to the game saw him take our Legacy Number 882.