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2023/24 English Premier League
Matchday 2
Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester United
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
London, England
Saturday, 19 August 2023
Kick-off is at 16h30
Manchester United will need to raise their game if they hope extend a five-match unbeaten run against Tottenham in the
Premier League at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, August 19.
The Red Devils were awful in their season-opener at home to Wolves, who can count themselves unfortunate to leave Old Trafford with nothing after Rafael Varane's 76th-minute header handed them a 1-0 defeat.
Andre Onana had a decent debut in goal, although he was lucky not to concede a late penalty after clattering into Sasa Kalajdzic in an attempt to clear the ball but getting nowhere near it.
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Spurs kicked off the post-Harry Kane era with a 2-2 draw against Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium, where Emerson Royal's equaliser in first-half stoppage time saw Ange Postecoglou avoid defeat in his first game at the helm.
Kane completed his move to Bayern Munich the previous day and Postecoglou's side got off to a good start when Cristian Romero opened the scoring in the 11th minute before the Bees hit back through Brian Mbeumo (27' PEN) and Yoane Wissa (36').
The North Londoners created the better chances in the second half and finished the game with 18 attempts at goal, while James Maddison had an encouraging debut.
Mason Mount was anonymous in his first outing for United and manager Erik ten Hag will be demanding more from his new signing in the capital. The former Chelsea midfielder had just 30 touches on the ball against Wolves - the least of any United player - and didn't manage a single shot at goal or even make any tackles.
Maddison made quite the impact on his Spurs debut, providing the assist for Romero with an expertly-taken free-kick, while the former Leicester midfielder made six key passes and hit the target with one of his two shots at goal.
Ten Hag acknowledged his players lost possession far too often, but took solace from the fact that they kept another clean sheet at the Theatre of Dreams, where they conceded just 10m goals all of last season.
"We gave away too many easy giveaways. That was not good. But you have to get into the season and we will improve on that fact," the Dutchman said.
"When you see giveaways, then you give them the opportunity to counter and then you have to follow [them]. But I think we matched the runs and we dealt with it.
"The clean sheet, that tells [you] everything, and that we, again, have been here in Old Trafford and we have a clean sheet, which is good. Now we have to be better on the ball."
Postecoglou was happy to start his tenure with a point and praised his players for maintaining their composure during a difficult period in the first half.
"I thought overall, pleased with the effort of the players, they gave everything, a good starting point for us," the Australian said.
"There was a fair bit going on in the first half and it would have been easy for the lads to lose their composure, drop their heads, but I thought they handled themselves really well.
"We controlled the game well in the second half, but we just lacked a bit of a threat in the final third, a little bit of creativity, but considering everything that happened, overall, I thought it was a good performance."
Head-to-Head (Last Five Premier League Meetings)
Matches - 5
Tottenham - 0
Man United - 4
Draws - 1
Matchday 2 fixtures:
Friday, August 18
18h45: Nottingham Forest v Sheffield United
Saturday, August 19
14h00: Fulham v Brentford
14h00: Liverpool v Bournemouth
14h00: Wolverhampton Wanderers v Brighton & Hove Albion
16h30: Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester United
19h00: Manchester City v Newcastle United
Sunday, August 20
13h00: Aston Villa v Everton
15h30: West Ham United v Chelsea