United scalp buoys Villas-Boas

Andre Villas-Boas was visibly ecstatic after his Tottenham side earned their first away win against Manchester United since 1989.

Villas-Boas achieved what Spurs’ previous 10 managers failed to as his side took a 2-0 lead in a stunning first-half display and held on for a 3-2 win at Old Trafford.

Jan Vertonghen and Gareth Bale set them on their way before three goals in as many minutes left the game in the balance. Nani cut the deficit but Clint Dempsey immediately made it 3-1, only for Shinji Kagawa to hit back once more.

Tottenham held on despite a tide of pressure from United and a relieved Villas-Boas said afterwards: “We were tremendous today, the players put in the effort and intensity to get a result.

“The first half was totally different from the second but we can be proud of each other.

“It was an electric first 15 minutes of the second half but you can see from the desire to hold on to such a historic result that we can count on each other to do big things.”

The Portuguese saluted his side after illness had left them with some significant doubts over their line-up.

He told ESPN: “Gareth was unable to train this week with the flu and (Gylfi) Sigurdsson has been ill the last two days, so the team are exhausted from the effort they put in.

“You have to give compliments to everybody on a special night like this but it doesn’t stop here, we have so many important games to play.

“We go to (Panathinaikos) and we need a result to give us a strong position in the (Europa League) group, then we have Aston Villa two days after. It is important to continue from this.”

Dempsey added: “It’s awesome, it’s always so difficult and it’s the first time in so long so we’re excited about it.

“It was a rollercoaster, we did well in the first half to go 2-0 up. Then they scored, we answered quickly, they responded again and in the second half it was like chasing shadows.

“But we showed a lot of character, we ground out a result and we got three points.”

The American’s goal was his first since his drawn-out deadline-day move from Fulham and he said: “I had one called back against Lazio so it was good to open my account and good to get my first win here.”