How Mourinho’s Army destroyed Man Utd’s ‘Theatre of Dreams’ with 6-1 win
Jose Mourinho returned to Manchester United and humiliated his old club as Tottenham came from behind to record a famous 6-1 win.
Son Heung-min and Harry Kane scored twice, with Tanguy Ndombele and Serge Aurier also on target as 10-man United suffered a defeat on a par with their 6-1 thrashing at home by Manchester City in 2011.
It meant it was not only the heaviest defeat since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took temporary charge in December 2018, but also the largest United have suffered since Ed Woodward took over as executive vice-chairman in 2013.
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The result leaves the United 16th in the Premier League, with newly-promoted Fulham and West Brom the only clubs with a worse goal difference. Only West Brom have conceded more than their 11 goals.
United were completely outplayed, even before they were reduced to 10 men midway through the first half when Anthony Martial dragged his hand across Erik Lamela’s face in reaction to an elbow in his neck.
In contrast, Tottenham moved up to fifth after emerging from a packed schedule of five games in 11 days in three competitions with a creditable four wins and a draw.
After struggling to bring in new players since the end of last season, the preceding 24 hours had been quite good for United, with deals for veteran striker Edinson Cavani and Brazilian full-back Alex Telles nearing conclusion.
The match could not have got off to a better start either as Davinson Sanchez barged Martial over inside the box within 30 seconds, which provided Bruno Fernandes with the chance to score yet another penalty.
After that it was downhill at a rapid rate for the hosts, who had lost their lead after four minutes, were behind after seven and by the break had conceded four at home in the first half of a league game for the first since 1957, bizarrely also against Spurs.
There was no disguising the abysmal nature of United’s defending, with £80m skipper Harry Maguire one of the chief culprits.
Maguire got himself into a real mess trying to deal with what appeared to be a routine ball into the box. Twice he failed to clear, as did Luke Shaw, allowing Ndombele to drive home his first Premier League goal in over a year.
Conceding a free-kick for a foul on England team-mate Harry Kane deep in United territory, instead of delaying the situation, which Sanchez did when faced with a similar situation at the other end not long afterwards, Maguire backed off. Kane simply slid a pass through the gap and Son’s pace took him clear of Eric Bailly and Shaw.
The third was a result of Kane sliding in to win possession on the edge of the home area after Bailly’s short pass had put Nemanja Matic under pressure, the England skipper finished after Son had crossed low.
A 14-minute spell either side of the interval brought another goal for Son and a rare goal for Aurier.
By this point, Solskjaer needed to be thankful Old Trafford was largely and the only noise was the visiting contingent in their celebrations. The thought of it being full to witness a humiliation like this is not a pretty one..