Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday won the battle of the English Premier League’s underachievers 1-0 to inflict another dismal result on Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim.
James Maddison scored the only goal on 13 minutes as Spurs moved above United in the table into 12th place thanks to a third win over the Red Devils this season.
Victory eased the pressure on under-fire Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou after exiting both domestic cup competitions this month to go with their lowly league position.
Photo: AFP
United now find themselves down in 15th, but do enjoy a 12-point cushion over the bottom three.
“The place in the table is my worry, I am not worried about me,” said Amorim, who has won just four of 14 Premier League games since taking charge in November last year. “I hate to lose. That feeling is the worst. The rest I am not thinking about. I understand my situation, my job, I am confident in my work and I just want to win games.”
Tottenham’s first home league win since November last year came amid a spirit of revolt among their support. Before kickoff and after the match, Spurs fans again vented their frustration toward owners ENIC and Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy.
A huge banner read “24 years, 16 managers, 1 trophy — Time for change,” as a sizeable contingent of the home crowd joined a protest calling for Levy to go.
However, the mood for Postecoglou was lifted even before kickoff as he was able to welcome back a host of first-team regulars who have been sidelined by injury.
Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario made his first appearance since November last year. Maddison returned to the starting lineup, while Destiny Udogie, Brennan Johnson and Wilson Odobert were on the bench.
“They are quality players. We’ve had it pretty tough the last two-and-a-half months,” Postecoglou said. “It was important for us to win and gain some traction. I certainly feel there is still a massive opportunity for us in this back half of the season and hopefully today is the start of that.”
United have their own injury troubles, with Amad Diallo joining Lisandro Martinez on the sidelines for the rest of the season and Kobbie Mainoo ruled out for a month.
Amorim had to name eight teenagers among his nine substitutes, forcing Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee to start together up front after both were overlooked for United’s last league game — a 2-0 defeat to Crystal Palace.
Hojlund had the first chance when he fired too close to Vicario before the Italian flew to his left to deny Alejandro Garnacho.
Instead, Spurs got the opener when Andre Onana could only parry Lucas Bergvall’s shot into the path of Maddison, who tapped into an empty net for his 10th goal of the season.
United should have been at least level by halftime as Garnacho blazed over a glorious opportunity with just Vicario to beat after being picked out by Bruno Fernandes.
Vicario continued to frustrate Garnacho with another fine save after the break.
Zirkzee wasted a huge chance to equalize 20 minutes from time when the Netherlands international headed Noussair Mazraoui’s cross wide with the goal gaping, but United’s inability to put the ball in the net came as little surprise.
Only the bottom three plus Everton have scored fewer than United’s 28 goals in 25 league games this season.
At the other end, Onana kept the visitors in the game by parrying Dejan Kulusevski’s powerful effort, but even Spurs’ makeshift defense could not be breached by Amorim’s men to allow Postecoglou to see some light at the end of the tunnel.
Earlier, Liverpool moved seven points clear at the top of the Premier League as Luis Diaz ended his goal drought to spark a tense 2-1 win against struggling Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Arne Slot’s side got back on track after an unexpectedly poor week thanks to Diaz’s first goal this calendar year and yet another Mohamed Salah strike.
Diaz opened the scoring early in the first half at Anfield as the Colombian forward finally scored for the 13th time this season after 10 games without a goal.
While Diaz has struggled to find the net, Salah is in red-hot form and his penalty before halftime took the Egyptian star to 28 goals in all competitions this season.
Matheus Cunha netted in the second half for fourth-from-bottom Wolves, but although Liverpool looked tired in a disjointed, nervous, climax, they held on for a valuable victory.
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