Manchester United was humbled by Tottenham in the Premier League on Sunday, losing 3-0 at Old Trafford and seeing captain Bruno Fernandes sent off in an increasingly troubled start to the season.
Goals by Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke consigned United to a third loss in the league already this season and left Eric ten Hag’s team 12th in the standings.
“First we have to deal with this and show resilience. This is not good enough,” Ten Hag said. “We have to accept this and get better. Focus on the next game and do things better than we did today.”
Tottenham is up to eighth and has won four games in a row in all competitions.
In contrast, United has failed to win any of its last three games in all competitions — and has won just one of its last five games in the league — and there were boos inside the stadium at the final whistle. Many fans had already left after Solanke’s strike, prompting chants of “Is there a fire drill?” from Spurs fans.
As bad as this latest setback for Ten Hag was, it could have been worse, with goalkeeper Andre Onana twice denying Timo Werner in one-on-one situations with the forward. He also stopped Solanke from scoring his second when through on goal late on.
United got off to a terrible start. It went behind in the third minute when Johnson was left with an open net to aim at after defender Micky van de Ven was allowed to run from his own half and cross from inside the box.
Johnson made no mistake from close range and might have added another when firing against the post.
United was lucky not to go further behind before halftime as Tottenham dominated and even came close to an equalizer when Alejandro Garnacho volleyed against the post with a rare chance for the home team.
But any chance of a comeback was dealt a major blow after Fernandes was shown a straight red for a studs-up challenge on James Maddison shortly before the break.
Spurs didn’t have to wait long to double the lead, with Kulusevski adding a second two minutes into the second half by flicking a shot past Onana from Johnson’s cross.
Solanke slid in for Spurs’ third in the 77th.
“We were real good. Obviously it is a great victory,” Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou said. “That is everything we want to be.”
Son Heung-min unavailable
Son Heung-min missed Sunday’s match, with manager Postecoglou saying the South Korea forward wasn’t available after playing in the Europa League on Thursday.
Son, who started in Spurs’ 3-0 win against Qarabag, wasn’t named in the squad for the game at Old Trafford.
“Short turnaround, he just wasn’t right for today so we go in without him,” Postecoglou said. “We’ve had those things a fair bit. We just have to learn to cope without.”
Last week Son joined a growing number of leading figures in football to raise concerns about the demands on players, saying there was a “massive” risk of injury.
His comments came after Manchester City midfielder Rodri said last week that players were close to taking strike action. Days later, Rodri sustained knee ligament damage, which has ruled him out for the season.
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