Champions Manchester United will host Tottenham Hotspur on Monday. The encounter once was most exciting in English football, but in recent years it has been heavily tilted in favor of the side from Old Trafford. It has been a long time since the fixture had any aura of rivalry about it.
Tottenham haven’t won at the home of the Red Devils since 1989 when Gary Linekar scored the winning goal in a 2-1 victory. Back then, the side from North London would go into games as favourite. How times have changed. Spurs’ last victory over United came way back in May 2001. Since then Alex Ferguson’s men have won 15 of the subsequent 19 meetings.
Despite the success of the past two years under manager Harry Redknapp, there is a whiff of uncertainty, perhaps even depression, around Spurs at the beginning of the new season. A lot of it has to do with the lack of summer signings, particularly up front, where Redknapp’s men are crying out for a striker. Last season, Tottenham’s forward line barely managed to muster 20 league goals between them. There has been talk of signing Emmanuel Adebayor on-loan from Manchester City. Although his arrival will be a step in the right direction, the erratic temperament of the former Arsenal striker means that Spurs would be well-advised not be overly reliant on him. There is also the residual sense of anti-climax that has accompanied the club ever since their Champions League exit at the hands of Real Madrid in the quarter-final stages.
Last year saw Tottenham making debut season in the Champions League and the North London outfit dazzled the whole of Europe with a glut of goals, thrilling matches and superb victories against Inter and AC Milan. But things didn’t work quite so well in the League. Despite lying in fourth place in January and with a fairly easy fixture ahead of them, Spurs blew their chances of qualifying for Europe’s premier competition by accumulating far too many draws in the run-in, particularly against sides placed in the lower half of the table. Many saw it as a wasted opportunity to truly cement the Lillywhite’s place at the top of European football. The saga of Luka Modric’s possible transfer to Chelsea has not helped matters. Up until now chairman Daniel Levy has been adamant that they will not sell their best players – even though the player himself has made it publicly known that he wants to leave in order to play in the Champions League again. Losing Modric would be a bitter blow to any aspiration the club has of once again finishing in the top-four and cement their reputation as a feeder club for the bigger sides. Over the years, Tottenham have lost the likes of Jurgan Klinsmann, Michael Carrick, Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane and most bitterly Sol Campbell to Europe’s elite clubs. There is also the risk that if the Croatian midfielder leaves, the club’s other star players like Gareth Bale and Rafeal Van Der Vaart, may perceive this as a lack of ambition and agitate for a move themselves.
After their opening league fixture against Everton was postponed because of the recent London riots, Tottenham got the new season under way with a very easy 5-0 victory over the Scottish team Hearts in the Europa Cup qualifying round. But, as manager Harry Redknapp reminded the press in the post match interview, Monday’s game is a different proposition entirely.
Manchester United, meanwhile, head into the fixture off the back of a hard fought 2-1 away win against Roy Hodgson’s West Bromwich Albion. New signing Ashley Young was energetic throughout the contest and scored the crucial second goal courtesy to a couple of deflections. Wayne Rooney, also had an excellent game and appears to be returning to the type of form that saw him winning the English player of the year award a couple of seasons ago. However, not all is rosy at Old Trafford. United lost Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Fabio to injuries. United though pose an excellent group of back up defenders including new £16 million signing Phil Jones, yet it remains to seen how badly injuries to their first choice defensive line will affect them. More worrying is the form of new goalkeeper David De Gea. The Spaniard has had a difficult start to life in England. In the Community Shield match against Manchester City, De Gea almost cost United the victory after failing to react to a shot by Edin Dzeko. He followed that up with another mistake last week against WBA which allowed new signing Shane Long to grab the equalising goal. In both instances, Manchester United went onto win the game, but in future, fortune will not always be so kind. According to one of the four emblematic theorems of Buddhism – ‘nothing lasts forever’. Tottenham will be stridently hoping that that proves true on Monday night and they finally claim victory at the home of the Champions after 22 long years. If recent history is to go by – this might be the only hope they have.
