James Maddison downs dour Manchester United to earn Spurs first home win since November
SSHHH: Tottenham Hotspur's James Maddison celebrates scoring the winner. Pic: John Walton/PA Wire.
James Maddison made a triumphant Tottenham return as Manchester United flopped once again.
Maddison, making a first appearance in three weeks following injury, scored the only goal of an open contest early on.
It was a first home win in the league since November for Spurs, who moved up to 12th.
That left United still in 15th, with manager Ruben Amorim now having overseen just four wins from 14 league games since replacing Erik ten Hag.
United had chances but Alejandro Garnacho and Joshua Zirkzee were guilty of bad misses.
Fit-again Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario made early saves to deny Rasmus Hojlund and Garnacho within the space of a few seconds, with Ben Davies blocking Diogo Dalot's follow-up on the line.
Three minutes later however United found themselves behind. Heung-min Son's deflected volley fell to Lucas Bergvall and Andre Onana could only push out the low drive that followed. United's defence was static as Maddison stepped up for a simple finish.
Garnacho, found in space by Bruno Fernandes on the left of the box, should have made it 1-1 in the 22nd minute but fired over. Maddison was running the show for Spurs though, a super pass led to Onana saving from new recruit Mathys Tel.
The on-loan Bayern Munich man forced Onana into the first save of the second period as well. Tel then scooped a difficult one over.
United replied with another chance for Garnacho, and this time Vicario had to make another good save, a replica of one he had only just made when an offside Dalot burst through down the inside right channel.
The Argentinian came again, this time on the left, but again Vicario was able to get down and save, at his near post.
Zirkzee sent a free header wastefully wide as time began to run out, with Casemiro's late header saved by Vicario.
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