Man Utd 2-0 Spurs

Old Trafford, Manchester
30th October 2010

With Spurs being a champions league team and in good form, this match was going to be a cracker of a game, and it was.

Spurs came in with a good line up with Gomes in goal; Assou-Ekotto,Kaboul,Gallas and Hutton in the back; Bale, Modric, Jenas and Lennon in the middle; and alongside Van Der Vaart was captain Robbie Keane, making a rare start. Cudicini, Bassong, Palacios, Krancar, Sandro, Pavlyuchenko and Crouch were on the bench. Yes, Spurs were a really impressive team and had brought a great team to Manchester.

Rooney, Giggs, Owen and Gary Neville were all watching the game, but none of them were in the starting 11, nor among the substitutes. The starting 11 consisted of Van Der Sar; Evra, Vidic, Ferdinand, Rafael; Park,Carrick, Fletcher, Nani; Berbatov and Hernandez up front. Kuszczack, Brown, Smalling, O'Shea, Scholes, Obertan and Bebe were on the bench.


The first half was action packed and exciting with Park Ji Sung hitting the post as early as the 2nd minute, which was followed by Van Der Vaart striking the post a few minutes later. Both teams had an array of chances with both the goalkeepers having to make a few saves. ManUtd probably had more chances and possesion of the ball but the difference between the two teams wasn't much.

The deadlock was broken in the 31st minute when a Nani freekick was headed in powerfully by Vidic. Rooney, who had criticized Nani for not being good with the set pieces, was impressed by it. There were no more goals in the half.


Spurs had most of the ball in the second half but it was Man Utd who had more shots on goal. Nothing notable happened until the 84th minute when Nani was clearly brought down in the penalty box. Nani thought the penalty was given and caught the ball. But referee Clattenburg hadn't and Gomes took the ball from Nani and rolled it around 10-15 yards upfront thinking a free kick was awarded. But Nani got up, went near the ball, looked at the referee as if asking he could go for the ball, to which the referee agreed and hit the ball into the empty post.

Spurs were furious about this and the linesman flagged for handball very late. The referee and the linesman had a discussion but the referee stood by his decision, and the goal was awarded.

Spurs who had been awarded 2 controversial goals already this season, finally end up on the conceding side.

The final score stayed 2-0 and united remained 6 points adrift chelsea, who had won earlier.