Spurs won 6-1 at Old Trafford in October with Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitting the defeat hurt; Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho believes the result was a one-off; watch Tottenham vs Manchester United live on Sky Sports Premier League from 4pm on Sunday; Kick-off 4.30pm
By Liam Grace
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admits Manchester United’s “pride was hurt” after the 6-1 home defeat to Tottenham in October and says his team will be out for revenge as the sides prepare to lock horns once again on Sunday.
United, second in the table, travel to north London looking to put their joint-heaviest Premier League defeat behind them as sixth-placed Spurs attempt to secure a top-four finish with eight games left to play.
The reverse fixture saw United concede six goals in a single Premier League game for only the third time, a performance which Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville described as “spiritless, spineless and pathetic”.
The criticism did not stop there, with fellow ex-United defender Patrice Evra labelling the players an “embarrassment” and striker Marcus Rashford even took to Twitter after the match to apologise to the club’s supporters.
Reflecting on that low moment, and asked about how hurtful it was and if it has given United an extra spark going into Sunday’s match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, United manager Solskjaer said: “Yeah, I think the players will remember that game with a lot of pain.
“Our pride was hurt. The manner in which we lost, we were not ourselves, and we know that. We gave ourselves a difficult game by having 10 men. Pre-season was short and we were not up to the standard required, but we were so poor.
“I’m sure we will see some players looking to prove that they are better than that. The biggest thing we have improved on is our fitness levels. We were way short of them. It was our third game of the season.
“We got conned into a red card, that’s something we need to be aware of. We cannot react like this. We know that in games, in these situations, you can be wound up and we have learnt a lot from that.
“I’m sure we will have a better performance this time around.”
Despite a massive improvement from that poor performance, Solskjaer insists he will not be satisfied with just a second-placed finish in the Premier League this season.
United currently have a four-point cushion over third-placed Leicester with eight games left but trail leaders Manchester City by 14 points, although Pep Guardiola’s side have played a game more.
They are still fighting in the Europa League, and put one foot in the semi-finals with their 2-0 first-leg victory over Granada in the last eight on Thursday.
“We should never settle for second place at Manchester United,” Solskjaer added. “We will never settle for second. We have seen the heights and we know what this club is capable of.
“I’ve been here a little while myself [as manager] and it’s taken time for us to be in this position. Hopefully we can be better next season, we are still below our ambitions.”
Meanwhile, former United defender Marcos Rojo says Edinson Cavani is interested in joining him at Boca Juniors.
Last month, Cavani’s father Luis revealed the Uruguay striker is increasingly likely to leave United to join Boca this summer.
Quizzed about the 34-year-old’s future, Solskjaer said: “I’ve kept in touch with him of course. We keep an open dialogue.
“He’s still unsure what he wants to do next season, which I find fine. It’s not been an easy year for him – or the rest of the world – this season. He still wants time to make his mind up.”
Jose: 6-1 is not going to happen again
Jose Mourinho believes the 6-1 footballing lesson his Tottenham side gave Manchester United last October is a freak result and not a fair representation of both sides.
Instead, the Spurs head coach prefers to focus on the previous two results as proof there are fine margins between the two teams.
The last meeting at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium saw Bruno Fernandes’s penalty cancel out Steven Bergwijn’s opener in a 1-1 draw back in June.
Before that a Marcus Rashford double gave United a 2-1 win at Old Trafford in December 2019.
“I don’t think 6-1 reflects reality – these crazy scorelines can sometimes happen between two big clubs but they happen in an isolated way,” Mourinho said.
“I go more on the other two previous matches between us and United – we lost 2-1 at Old Trafford through a penalty and we drew 1-1 at home last season also with a penalty.
“For me, this is more the reality – we are not far from each other so it will be a difficult and tight match for both.
“I don’t know if Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is going to use the result [as motivation] but if it was me losing 6-1 I would just say to my guys, it happened once, it’s not going to happen twice.”
Leave a comment
[wpqa_login]