Paul Fennessy

THREE YEARS ago, Tottenham hosted Man United in the Premier League, and fans jokingly branded the game ‘El Sackico’.

It looked to some as if whichever beleaguered manager suffered defeat on that day would lose his job.

On that occasion, Spurs suffered a 3-0 defeat and consequently, their manager Nuno Espirito Santo was dismissed.

The result afforded Ole Gunnar Solskjaer some breathing space but not much, as he was let go just a month later.

The pressure was not quite as intense today, but there is no doubt that both the clubs’ current managers have been under pressure already this season.

The two teams came into this game level on points with one another in the Premier League table after similarly frustrating starts to the season.

Ange Postecoglou has talked of consistently winning trophies in his second season as manager of clubs, but four points in their first four games meant hopes that Spurs would repeat this trend look fanciful.

Similarly, Erik ten Hag signed a new contract in the summer, primarily due to United’s surprise FA Cup triumph after a dismal eighth-place Premier League finish last season.

Many pundits had expected the new structure at United with Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS on board to instigate a change of manager. Instead, they opted to back Ten Hag.

Yet that decision appears to have backfired. The Red Devils are 12th in the table after losing three out of six top-flight games.

In the past, Ten Hag has blamed injuries on the club’s substandard performances.

But he had no such excuse this afternoon, as United fielded what many people would consider their strongest XI.

The 54-year-old coach has reportedly spent £616 million (€738 million) on players. Yet the team still look a long way off challenging for the Premier League title.

People will argue that Bruno Fernandes’s red card, a harsh decision, was the turning point, but in truth, Spurs should have been out of sight by then.

Per Stats perform, the visitors had nine big chances, the joint-most-ever created in a Premier League game along with Arsenal-Fulham in January 2019. 

Tottenham also had 4.67 expected goals from 24 shots, 10 of which were on target.

The only consolation for United was that the winning margin was not more emphatic.

Not for the first time this season, the North London outfit failed to capitalise fully on their dominance. The visiting fans must have feared a similar outcome to earlier games this season versus Leicester City and Newcastle where they dominated for large spells but paid the price for several costly misses.

Yet once Dejan Kulusevski (who has created more chances than any other Premier League player on average this season according to Sky Sports) finished clinically early in the second half, it appeared there could only be one winner. And so, it proved.

Given how well his team played, it is easy to forget the position Postecoglou found himself in as recently as 11 days ago.

On 18 September, 88th and 92nd-minute goals rescued his side from a humiliating League Cup exit at the hands of Championship outfit Coventry City.

Yet now Spurs look far more confident and have won four games in a row.

14 days ago, Brennan Johnson had to deactivate his Instagram account because the abuse he was receiving from fans was so intense.

Now, the 23-year-old has four goals from the last four games.

Johnson and Postecoglou will feel vindicated despite their rocky start to the campaign.

And notwithstanding the FA Cup victory in May, you always felt Ten Hag was on rockier ground than his Australian counterpart.

Whereas club chairman Daniel Levy has unequivocally backed the Spurs boss despite some disappointing results and performances in the last 12 months, it is no secret that United were looking for a new manager in the summer and only settled for the Dutchman when no obvious alternative was available.

Players can sense when a boss is in such a vulnerable position and this scenario rarely ends well for the manager.

Yet perhaps the biggest difference between Postecoglou and Ten Hag is how they adapted to English football.

Coming into the Premier League, both coaches were lauded for their results and the style they implemented at previous clubs.

Postecoglou has stuck steadfastly to his favoured attacking approach with a high line and consistently attractive and entertaining football.

By contrast, even one of the more mild-mannered pundits, Sky’s Jamie Redknapp, lambasted Man United at half-time today, for having “no identity”.

It sums up a key problem since Ten Hag’s arrival — they have rarely successfully implemented the brilliant football that made him such a success at Ajax — and they invariably have not even tried to replicate this formula.

Ten Hag has been willing to sacrifice his principles to (at least try to) achieve success, whereas Postecoglou has been dogmatic in insisting on how his team should play despite the perceived risks. As he famously told a reporter following last season’s chaotic defeat to Chelsea in which Spurs insisted on playing a high line despite being reduced to nine men: “It’s who we are, mate.”

Of course, both managers have been criticised for their opposite approaches: Ten Hag for not sticking to his philosophy and Postecoglou for refusing to stray from his.

But at the moment, the Spurs manager’s way is the only one that appears justified. Their results have not been much better, but there is at least clear evidence of a distinctive plan.

And whereas the two teams are only three points apart in the table, the gulf in class that was clear for fans to see today provided a damning and perhaps irreversibly damaging indictment of the Ten Hag era.