FOR a good long while Tottenham versus Manchester United was a marquee match-up that got pulses racing.
Granted, one side looked down on the other – ‘Lads, it’s Spurs’ and all that – but to Tottenham’s credit they also showed a healthy disregard towards their opponent. While others stuck ten men behind the ball when facing the perennial league champions, the North London giants always showed commendable adventure, and this explains the numerous draws and occasional thrilling home wins at the Lane during a period when United elsewhere dominated the English footballing landscape.
Even when the tables began to turn, this remained a top six clash that neutrals looked forward to.
For close to a decade Spurs were blessed with Son and Kane up front and were generally considered the better team, yet United would typically rouse themselves from their latest crisis and go toe-to-toe at least.
There’s a 3-1 away win in the annals, from recent times, along with a 3-0 success under Solskjaer.
Indeed, maybe that’s why this is one of the most anticipated meetings on the Premier League calendar. It has form for bringing the worst out of the superior team and the best from the underdog.
So where does that acknowledgement leave us as regards to this Sunday, an encounter that doesn’t have anyone of higher quality, just two teams mired in serious trouble.
The visitors have lost seven of their last 11 in the league and are seemingly incapable of properly adapting to their new manager’s demands. Spurs, meanwhile, are on track to post their worst season since they were relegated in 1977. From August to now, they have managed to win back-to-back just once.
Is this therefore two bald men fighting over a comb, that trite analogy that is often trotted out when two fading forces collide? Oddly, the classic film Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? comes to mind instead, because here are a pair of former stars of stage and screen now reduced to bickering beyond the spotlight.
Traditionally termed a top six battle, the hosts currently languish in 14th, the visitors 13th.
All of which makes it exceedingly difficult to pick out a winner this time out. Quite obviously there is no form side to back, but moreover there are hardly any positives outside of actual results to hang any hopes on. A player who has excelled in recent weeks. Or a succession of chances missed lately, that tells us a team is knocking on the door.
There has been none of that. Or very, very little.
Let’s then adjust our settings, and try to determine which of these two desperately poor sides will be the least poor on Sunday.
Manchester United are unbeaten in their last two on the road, both fixtures requiring fortitude. It’s not much to go on, but that’s where we’re at.
Spurs meanwhile, last won at home in the league way back in early November. In their seven games since they have conceded 2.7 per 90.
Does that intimate that Ruben Amorim’s men should be fancied to prevail? Not when we recall that Spurs have already beaten the Reds twice this term, though even this significant clue has caveats.
Their 3-0 victory at Old Trafford in the autumn took place before they descended into turmoil, as injuries stripped them bare. As for their 4-3 Carabao Cup success a week prior to Christmas, that only serves to remind us of what we’re dealing with here. It was an evening rife with individual mistakes and all-round chaos that could have easily gone either way.
Which really doesn’t help us much.
What then of key personnel? Surely there must be someone who has stood tall above mediocrity?
A few weeks ago, Amad Diallo would have been in the frame, he being United’s chief source for goals and assists and a hat-trick hero no less when Southampton were dispensed with mid-January. In recent games, however, the young winger has gone off the boil a touch, executing just two attempts on goal in his last three outings.
Where he remains valuable is by winning possession in the final third, doing so 1.5 times per 90 in 2024/25.
Then there’s Alejandro Garnacho, who is averaging 1.4 shots on target per 90, but whether he starts after putting in a stinker at home to Crystal Palace remains to be seen.
And when we turn our attention to Tottenham, we find a similar dearth of star performers.
Son Heung-min may be playing at a level below his usual devastating self but he has still conjured up 13 big chances this term, the sixth most in the Premier League. The 32-year-old also has a decent number of assists (7), the most of anyone on the pitch this weekend.
It should be noted too that Djed Spence has impressed when deployed down the left. He is more than capable of besting Noussair Mazraoui down that flank, which could help sway the contest.
That aside, though, it’s slim pickings, and is that any surprise given the shared struggles of the teams involved, struggles that are easy to explain away.
For United – a collective that was already malfunctioning – theirs is a situation greatly worsened by having a manager dead-set on prioritizing system over personnel. Putting round pegs in square holes has never worked in football and never will.
For Spurs, injuries lies at the heart of their woes, and if you think too much is made of that then consider the following.
Imagine a team where Vicario is in nets, behind a defence made up of Dragusin, Van de ven, Romero and Udogie. In midfield there is Maddison and Odobert, with Werner and Johnson either side. Up front, Richarlison partners Solanke.
Swap Bissouma for Odobert and that is a side that could secure a top four spot. All are injured or doubtful ahead of the weekend.
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