With both sides enduring their worst-ever starts to a Premier League season, optimism was at an all-time low, but it was the division’s bottom club who were emphatically the better side early on.
Senne Lammens’ pass undersold Kobbie Mainoo, allowing Lucas Bergvall to play in Dominic Solanke, but he couldn’t beat Lammens to mark his first Spurs captaincy with a goal.
The visitors were totally dominant in midfield, generating more chances including when Mohammed Kudus thundered wide following Savio’s pull back into the area.
In a very similar situation to their final match before the international break, Spurs seemed to have wasted their early supremacy as United finally started to look more comfortable.
A fast break saw Bryan Mbeumo racing towards goal and playing in Amad Diallo, but the Ivorian’s effort was easy for Antonin Kinsky to deal with. At least they didn’t go behind at the end of the half – like in the aforementioned Aston Villa game – but the interval arrived with Roberto De Zerbi’s side somehow still looking for a breakthrough.
The second half began in similar fashion to the first, with Savio creating a pair of chances, the second of which was ballooned over by Solanke. Spurs had squandered one chance too many, and their wastefulness was punished with just over 15 minutes remaining.
Matheus Cunha worked his way into the box and squared it to Mbeumo, who took a great first touch and swivelled to find the far corner, breaking the deadlock in United’s favour.
To make matters worse for Spurs, Rodrigo Bentancur was sent off five minutes later for a diabolical combination of two wild challenges and then a head-to-head confrontation with Luke Shaw.
United didn’t take further chances to extend their lead, and that was to their detriment as they allowed a late equaliser despite the personnel advantage. Sandro Tonali’s cross dropped into the vicinity of Solanke, who fended off the challenge from Lisandro Martinez to head into the bottom corner.
Though they couldn’t push on further, that goal just about saved Spurs’ blushes, seeing them off the bottom of the table, while United probably didn’t deserve all three points and instead went winless in three at Old Trafford.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Sandro Tonali (Tottenham Hotspur)