Under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Manchester United had won all 4 of their Premier League fixtures by a combined 14-3 scoreline but all 4 teams were not in the higher echelon of the top flight so it was hard to say just how much United had improved under their interim Norwegian boss.
Yesterday’s game at Wembley against Mauricio Pochettino’s title contenders was the first game of Ole’s reign against top 4 rivals and the United boss went with the line-up which has brought him the most goals so far in his reign.
Interestingly it was Spaniard David De Gea who really won the game for United by keeping out an amazing 11 shots on target by Spurs in the second half alone as the keeper was the clear man-of-the-match. Solskjaer was full of praise for his Spanish ace.
OGS started Martial, Lingard and Rashford as his front 3 and the players were constantly making runs and swapping positions to confuse the Tottenham defence and they had clearly spent a great deal of time in Dubai working on specific plans to defeat Spurs.
The best odds for Man United to finish in the top 4 before the big game vs Spurs yesterday were 9/2 but today by betting with Dafabet or other top bookies you can now only get the Red-Devils at the shorter odds of 11/4 such was the influence of United’s win over their London rivals. United are now favoured ahead of rivals Arsenal for a top 4 finish.
United have moved ahead of Arsenal with the bookies in the race for the top 4 and the Red-Devils are now tied with the Gunners on 41 points only behind them on goal difference which is only 2 goals. United have been massively improved under OGS and had Pogba and Rashford nominated for the PFA Awards for December as a result.
It was Pogba who was superb again yesterday as was Rashford, as the two players combined for the goal which won the game for United after Lingard won the ball back by tracking back and then Pogba hit an inch perfect pass which Rashford dispatched into the very corner of Hugo Lloris’s Tottenham goal.
Worryingly for Spurs and the Man United linked Mauricio Pochettino, Harry Kane may have injured his ankle at the end of the game as the United defence and midfield pair of Herrera and Matic managed to contain the England captain and keep him off the scoresheet.
So much to build on for OGS and United will be relishing their upcoming games vs Brighton at home in the League before they get the chance to lay a hammer blow to Arsenal’s confidence as the Red-Devils face Unai Emery’s team in the FA Cup 4th round before they play them again in the League later in the campaign.
Yesterdays win was really down to the brilliance of World class goalkeeper David De Gea but as Ole said after the game you are allowed to have a good goalkeeper.