Tottenham 3 Manchester United 0: Dele Alli goal starts six-minute rout to keep Spurs' Premier League title hopes alive

1/20
James Olley10 April 2016

Tottenham kept their Premier League title hopes alive with a second-half blitz comprising three goals in six minutes to beat 3-0 Manchester United at White Hart Lane.

Leicester’s win at Sunderland earlier in the day piled the pressure on Mauricio Pochettino’s side but they responded in fine style with Dele Alli, Toby Alderweireld and Erik Lamela firing Spurs to their first home League win over United since 2001.

Spurs remain seven points behind Leicester with five games remaining but their rousing display after the interval will give Pochettino hope there is still time to overturn the deficit.

Kick-off was delayed by 30 minutes after United were caught in traffic making an eight-mile journey from their London hotel to Tottenham.

Louis van Gaal bemoaned the two-hour trip as his players belatedly went through their warm-up, long after it was confirmed Timothy Fosu-Mensah would replace Matteo Darmian at right-back while Spurs recalled Jan Vertonghen was recalled at centre-back after four months out with knee ligament damage and Lamela came in for Heung-Min Son.

Tottenham were slow into their stride as everyone connected with the home side seemed to be ruminating on the consequences of Leicester’s 2-0 victory and as a result United dictated the opening spell.

Jesse Lingard had a shot blocked on the edge of the box after five minutes but United created little of note before Spurs suddenly burst into life midway through the half.

David De Gea fumbled the ball in the box but United managed to scramble it clear only to lose possession again before regrouping. Christian Eriksen floated a ball to the back post where Lamela had drifted in behind Juan Mata but the Argentine could only steer a header wide, unmarked six yards out.

Kyle Walker then drove into the box but saw his shot blocked by a brilliant last-ditch tackle from Fosu-Mensah as United were thrust onto the back foot.

Eriksen whipped in a dangerous free-kick on the stroke of half-time but despite improving in their general play, Spurs were unable to test De Gea in the opening period.

Van Gaal replaced Ashley Young with Marcus Rashford for the restart. Rather than move Martial into the middle, Van Gaal instructed Young to play as a centre-forward - a position he played in for United’s Under-21 side on Monday but not at senior level since his days at Watford nearly a decade ago.

In Pictures: Tottenham vs Manchester United

1/20

Eriksen and Harry Kane fired efforts straight at De Gea but neither side could impose themselves on the other with sufficient authority to create sustained pressure. Just after the our mark, Martial’s jinking run took him into the box before he unleashed a right-foot shot which Hugo Lloris met with two firm hands to beat away.

Fosu-Mensah had impressed throughout but was forced off after 68 minutes and Spurs were ahead moments later.

Eriksen found himself in space on the left and produced a pinpoint cross for Alli to sidefoot the ball past De Gea. Spurs fans erupted in a mixture of joy and relief while United proceeded to fall apart, principally down the flank Fosu-Mensah had been protecting.

Lamela swung over a free-kick and Alderweireld climbed above Marcus Rojo to plant a header into the corner. Spurs’ third goal was wondrously constructed, climaxing with Rose crossing from the Spurs left for Lamela to steer the ball home and settle proceedings.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in