. Last season's game - Man Utd 2 Spurs 0, 19.10.22
. This season's home game - Spurs 2 Man Utd 0, 19.08.23
. Premier League Matchday 21 - last year
. See the current injury list for all Premier League Teams
. All the Spurs Stats you could hope for here! THFC6061 Sports Stats

Full League Record of Man Utd v Spurs

Prem          Pl   W   D   L   For-Ag  Pts
Home          32   7  10  15   38 -49  31
Away          31   4   3  24   25 -59  15
=========================================
Total (Prem)  63  11  13  39   63 -108 46  0.73 Pts per game
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Football Lge
Home (Div 1)  51  20  19  12   89 -64  63
Away (Div 1)  51   9   9  33   55 -101 28
=========================================
Total(Div 1) 102  29  28  45  144 -165 91
=========================================
Football Lge
Home (Div 2)   4   2   1   1   10 - 3   5
Away (Div 2)   4   1   2   1    3 - 3   4
=========================================
Total(Div 2)   8   3   3   2   13 - 6   9
=========================================
Total (Prem)  63  11  13  39   63 -108 46 
Total (Div 1) 102 29  28  45  144 -165 91
Total (Div 2)  8   3   3   2   13 - 6   9
=========================================
Grand Total  173  43  44  86  219 -279 146
=========================================

Last Six Premier League results:-

Man Utd     -     WLDLWL

Man Utd    2-1    Chelsea
Man Utd    0-3    B'mouth
Liverpool  0-0    Man Utd
West Ham   2-0    Man Utd
Man Utd    3-2    A. Villa
Nottm Fst  2-1    Man Utd

Spurs       -     LWWWLW
           
Spurs      1-2    West Ham
Spurs      4-1    Newcastle
Nottm Fst  0-2    Spurs
Spurs      2-1    Everton
Brighton   4-2    Spurs
Spurs      3-1    B'mouth

Pos           P  W  D  L   F-A   GD  Pts
5. Spurs     20 12  3  5  42-29  13   39
9. Man Utd   20 10  1  9  22-27  -5   31

Manchester on our minds

"The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It's nothing of the kind. The game is about glory. It is about doing things in style, with a flourish, about going out to beat the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom." - Danny Blanchflower

For the next two weeks (and two games) we have Manchester on our minds. Firstly, we travel to Old Trafford (Sunday 4.30pm - SKY) for our first Premier League fixture of the New Year. Then, on Friday 26th January the football schedulers and ITV have given us a home FA Cup tie against Manchester City.

Once upon a time a trip to Old Trafford was regarded as the most fearsome and formidable of all fixtures. Whilst Spurs still have one of the most dismal of all records at "The Theatre of Dreams," we have won four of our last eleven away games against "The Red Devils." I was lucky enough to see the first three of those wins, but we were all prevented by COVID from seeing the magical 6-1 away win at what I labelled "The Theatre of Screams".

Only one of our playing representatives that day (Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg) is likely to feature in Sunday's game. Sergio Reguilon is back with Spurs after his loan spell with United but is likely to move off on another loan. Over the last week, we have said goodbye to Hugo Lloris and Eric Dier. Ben Davies has joined the injured list.

Spurs have been quick out of the blocks in this transfer window, seeking to cover the absence of top scorer and captain Son Heung-min and the shortage of centre-backs who meet the demands of Ange Postecoglou regarding the ability to play high-line defence which requires the pace to deal with break-out attacks. The (initial) loan acquisition of Timo Werner has led to a few raised eyebrows, but he does have pace and pedigree, coupled with a desire to prove himself worthy of international recognition. Timo has already trained with the team and will be in the squad, perhaps as a starter.

The signing of centre-back Radu Dragusin has been very positively received and I am sure he will also be in our squad for Sunday's game. Radu was only formally announced on Thursday evening, and I feel "Big Ange" is likely to stick with Emerson Royal at right centre-back, while Micky van de Ven has regained fitness just in time to replace the injured Ben Davies. I even saw reports suggesting that Cristian Romero may already be fit to play, but that does not seem to be the case.

Until the Premier League era the only time I physically witnessed a Spurs win at Old Trafford was almost 50 years ago now in March, 1974. I travelled with my colleague and friend (and future best man), and we sat above the Stretford End terraces. We had to sit on our hands when Ralph Coates scored the solitary goal which gave us a rare win, although Martin Peters had scored all four of our goals in the previous visit in October 1972.

Ralph Coates' goal wasn't the one which relegated Tommy Docherty's (that was famously Denis Law for Manchester City in United's last home game that season), but Spurs did send United to the bottom of the table for a couple of games.

United were also in the relegation zone when we beat them in October 1972 and Peters had scored three of his four goals before the great Bobby Charlton got on the scoresheet. It was Charlton's last season as a United player, and this was his last goal against Spurs.

Bobby Charlton scored in both the classic 5-1 games of the 65-66 season, each of which was won 5-1 by the home side. Sir Bobby's first goals (2) against Spurs came in his third season on 7th February 1959 in a 3-1 win at White Hart Lane, just a year and a day after the Munich air disaster.

The world of football mourned Sir Bobby in October, but in September, a lesser known former Manchester United player passed away aged 83. Mark Pearson helped United recover from the 1958 Munich air crash when he played in the emotional FA Cup fifth-round tie against Sheffield Wednesday, which finally took place a fortnight after Munich. United won the game 3-0 despite the tragic loss of so many players, and the absence of seriously injured Matt Busby. That game was 18-year-old Pearson's debut. He made 80 appearances over the next four and a half years, before moving to Sheffield Wednesday. Pearson scored against Spurs when United beat us 2-0 at Old Trafford in January 1961. Brian Judson's account of that game can be read here. It was one of only seven games we lost in our double season. Incidentally, Sheffield Wednesday were runners-up that year.

Erik Ten Hag's United have had and continue to have injury problems, but they've also had consistency issues demonstrated by a recent Boxing Day comeback to beat Aston Villa on Boxing Day before going down 2-1 at the City ground against struggling Nottingham Forest. United were also embarrassed 3-0 at home by Bournemouth earlier in December.

United finished bottom of their Champions League group and sit eighth in the table going into this weekend's games, eight points behind Spurs. Most players involved in the African Cup of Nations have left their clubs but United seemed to have gained special dispensation to enable goalkeeper Andre Onana to delay his departure. Onana is now expected to miss Cameroon's opening fixture against Guinea on Monday.

The Cameroon Federation had hoped that Onana would fly directly from Manchester to Ivory Coast straight after the match against Spurs, but the 27-year-old will now join up just before Cameroon's final two group-stage matches.

In his press conference Ten Hag has mentioned a number of players returning to training such as Martinez, Casemiro, Luke Shaw, Christian Eriksen, Antony and Diallo. Whether they all make the starting line-up remains to be seen. Donny van de Beek and Jadon Sancho have been farmed out on loan to Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Dortmund, respectively.

The latest Spurs team news is that Giovani Lo Celso and Dane Scarlett have joined Ben Davies on the injured list. Hopefully Van de Ven will replace Davies. There could be a starting place for Timo Werner on the left of a front three including Johnson and Richarlison, giving Kulusevski the playmaker role. I am being cautious regarding my prediction and think we may have to settle for a draw. This round of Premier League games takes place over two week-ends and our next league game will be on the last day of the month at home to Brentford.

Referee John Brooks takes charge of his fifth Spurs game. His one previous game with us this season was the 1-0 win at Luton when Micky van de Ven scored his only goal for a Spurs side which was already down to 10 men after Yves Bissouma got two first half yellow cards. Last week, Mr Brooks had charge of the Arsenal v Liverpool FA Cup tie.

Did you know? Manchester United had an Argentinean goalkeeper by the name of Sergio Romero between 2015 and 2021. Romero made just seven league appearances for the "Reds" and left the club in 2021. He played a full season in 2023 for Boca Juniors in Argentina.

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