Why the LOSER of Tottenham vs Man Utd could actually be better off if recent history repeats itself

THE mood inside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is likely to be mutinous - from BOTH sets of fans. Anger has only grown among the Spurs and Manchester United supporters as their clubs’ seasons of debacle have continued to plummet downhill in recent weeks. At best, it will be 14th versus 13th, with Spurs having suffered morale-sapping and embarrassing exits from both domestic cups last week and United having escaped by the skin of their teeth against Leicester.

Two clubs that have lost their way and all conviction. It means the pressure on Ange Postecoglou and Ruben Amorim is mounting. But you do not need a long memory to recall that we have been here before, for the same two clubs, barely three years ago. On that occasion, the loser “won”. Because it brought a change of manager and, for a few months at least, a sense of direction. While the winner missed out on the obvious managerial replacement, staggered on for three weeks before bowing to the inevitable, and ended up more than 30 points behind their two most bitter rivals.

October 30, 2021. United coming to N17 on the back of a 5-0 home drubbing by Liverpool, with just one point from their last four Prem games. Under the rocking, ragged, and doomed reign of a genuine Old Trafford hero, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. CASINO SPECIAL - BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS. Spurs, just a few months under the helm of Nuno Espirito Santo, who appeared to end up with the gig because nobody else wanted it after the forced departure of Jose Mourinho the previous season.

While Nuno’s possession-lite tactical approach is working a dream at Nottingham Forest this season, it had already set the Spurs fans on edge. They made no bones about their wish to see a team that wanted the ball, not wanted to play a less enjoyable version of the same reactive football that had been on offer under Mourinho. When Spurs lost three London derbies on the bounce, scoring just once across them and conceded three in each game to Crystal Palace, Chelsea and Arsenal, before wins over Villa and Newcastle, it felt like the next blip would be the final one.

A week before, that blip came. Another derby defeat, 1-0 at West Ham. The heat was on. And Nuno - and his team - melted. It was only when Marcus Rashford scored United’s third, four minutes from time, after earlier goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani, that the home fans stopped chanting for Nuno’s head. But only to turn their ire on chairman Daniel Levy - a groundswell of disgruntlement with him which has barely abated since.

Levy acted in the way many club bosses do when the fans turn on them - he sacked Nuno and replaced him with Antonio Conte - the man who would have been the preferred candidate to replace Solskjaer had United lost. By the end of the season, with Harry Kane back among the goals and Heung-min Son winning the Prem Golden Boot, Spurs were back in the Champions League - having beaten Arsenal 3-0 in a titanic adrenaline-fuelled display in the final weeks of the season to evict Mikel Arteta’s side from the top four.

Solskjaer was, by then, long gone. In the initial aftermath, reflecting on a “difficult week”, the Norwegian said it showed that the club and fan-base “connected together”. Within three weeks, that had unravelled, a crushing 4-1 loss at Watford bringing the end. Of course, Conte’s relationship with Levy and the club foundered and eventually splintered into tiny bits, the incendiary Italian dropping a nuclear bomb in the dressing room the following March and walking away to leave the ashes of the fall-out for others to fix.

In truth, Postecoglou still had all that to deal with when he arrived, plus filling the giant Kane-sized hole in his squad. Last season, despite a slew of injuries, fifth place was a massive step forward. This term, with the injury situation even worse, has been a debacle. Yet it has been little better for United under Amorim, with just 14 points in his 13 Prem matches, merely three more than Spurs over the same period.

And unlike Postecoglou, whose belief that his side will pick up results when the massed ranks of the injured brigade return to active service does have some credence, the past few weeks appear to have shown what this United side really are. Able to play when the pressure is off away from home. Utterly incapable of performing when they have to “make” the game at Old Trafford. So far, it seems that neither board will push the button at this stage - although a gutless mauling by either team could bring a change of heart.