Manchester United traveled to White Hart Lane in a extremely important match-up for Louis van Gaal’s men, however, the Red Devils found themselves on the outside looking in as they were blown-out by title contenders, Tottenham Hotspur.
Kickoff would be delayed 30 minutes as traffic halted United from making the trip to the stadium from downtown London, but it didn’t seem to phase the Manchester club as they were the early aggressors in the first part of the opening half.
Mauricio Pochettino’s men would eventually settle into the game later in the first half and would use that momentum to keep the pressure on United into the second half by taking advantage of the Timothy Fosu-Mensah injury and attacking down the left side.
Three Spurs goals would be scored in under 6 minutes as the United defence never really stood a chance once the young Dutchman was replaced with the shaky Matteo Darmian.
On the offensive side of the ball, Anthony Martial was lively on the left side of the attack and was the only United player to register a shot on target. Starting striker, Marcus Rashford was withdrawn at half after a very quiet match, but with Memphis Depay and Martial at van Gaal’s disposal to lead the attack, he chose Ashley Young, which left many scratching their heads and asking questions as to why the Dutchman would opt for Young.
The United player of the match on this day was quite simply Fosu-Mensah as it took only a few minutes of him being off the pitch for the United defence to fall apart and the Spurs to capitalize by putting three past de Gea. Fosu-Mensah finished the day with a shot and was successful on all 5 tackles that he attempted.
United will have to put the difficult afternoon behind them rather quickly as they travel to West Ham United in an FA Cup Quarter-final match before they return back home to host Aston Villa in Premier League action.
