Rio looking rocky as Spurs stun Old Trafford

Manchester United 2 Tottenham 3

Tottenham’s first Old Trafford victory in nearly a quarter of a century deservedly took its place in the history books but, for England manager Roy Hodgson at least, the stunning result may have served a far more practical purpose.

Just days after Rio Ferdinand was being talked about as an obvious replacement for John Terry, following the shamed Chelsea defender’s self-imposed international exile, here was a performance from the United defender that suggested the days of him being an impact player are well behind him.

Television pundits seemed to be queuing up after the defeat to pinpoint Ferdinand’s roles in all three Tottenham goals even if the better of them correctly pointed out that in the absence of the injured Nemanja Vidic, the mistakes seemed far worse and might not have happened at all if Ferdinand had his trusted partner alongside him.

Yet this was still a poor performance from Ferdinand, and United in general, and, given their considerable injury problems in defence, the loss of two of their opening six games already looks potentially damaging to their title hopes.

“We deserve to lose as we only played for 45 minutes and to concede three goals at Old Trafford is not enough to win a game,” said United full-back Patrice Evra.

“The problem was about our head. It looked like we stayed in the hotel. And the first 45 minutes there was no speed, no focus, we didn’t win a lot of challenges, we conceded silly goals.

“Maybe I’m hard on myself and the team but we just performed for the Man United fans in the second half and that is not enough if you want to win the title.

“If you want to talk about positive things, if we play like we did in the second half it will be difficult for any team to beat us. The speed, the anger, we just played with a different attitude and mentality.

“Two losses is really too much. But we have to be positive as well. We have to forget that first half. I hope it was just an accident.”

Those “positives”, epitomised through goals from Nani and Shinji Kagawa, and the fact that half-time replacement Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick both hit the woodwork, the Reds looked capable of snatching at least a point.

But the opening first 45 minutes, in which Jan Vertonghen and Gareth Bale capitalised on Ferdinand errors, left United firmly on the back foot and, after Nani halved the deficit, more poor work at the back allowed Clint Dempsey to make it 3-1.

During that second half comeback, the thoughts of Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas, understandably, returned to last season’s meeting with Alex Ferguson’s side at Stamford Bridge in February, when his then-employers Chelsea allowed a three-goal advantage to slip in a 3-3 draw.

As Spurs collected their first victory at Old Trafford in 23 years, there was to be no similar collapse by Villas-Boas’s team on this occasion, further evidence that despite the rumours, he has not encountered the same sort of personality conflicts at Spurs as he did at Chelsea.

“That’s nonsense,” said Spurs defender Steven Caulker, 20, who enjoyed a full league debut to remember at Old Trafford, when questioned about stories of dressing room unrest.

“There is a great team bonding there. Everyone is coming together. You could see from the celebrations at the end of the game, there is a positive atmosphere in the group. We are all very much behind the manager. These are the times when you have to stand strong and show your character and I think the boys did that fantastically well. We had to put our bodies on the line — Gallas ran into the post, Brad made a few saves — everyone came together well and defended as a team.

“We’ve got a new manager, with new ideas, and he has brought in a lot of youngsters. They have been training with us and lot of them were on the bench today. So it is all positive and hopefully we can push on.”

Caulker was not born when Spurs last won at Old Trafford, the win also ending a run of 26 games in all competitions, home and away, in which Tottenham had failed to beat United.

“It’s more than my lifetime since they last won here,” added Caulker.

“I was born in late 1991 so I wasn’t even around when Spurs won in 1989. There have been times over the years when they have been ahead but still not managed to get the win. It’s fantastic to be part of the team that ends that record and makes a bit of history for the club.

“That’s four wins out of four now, included the cup competitions, and that underlines that this is a squad that can go places.”

MANCHESTER UNITED 4-4-1-1: Lindegaard 6; Rafael 5, Ferdinand 4 (Hernandez 90), Evans 4, Evra 6; Nani 7, Carrick 6, Scholes 8, Giggs 4 (Rooney46, 7); Kagawa 7 (Welbeck 78); van Persie 5.

TOTTENHAM 4-4-2: Friedel 8; Walker 7, Gallas 8, Caulker 8, Vertonghen 8; Lennon 7, Sandro 8, Dembele 8 (Huddlestone 83), Bale 9; Defoe 7 (Dawson 90), Dempsey 8 (Sigurdsson 69, 7).

Referee: Chris Foy 8.