'Welcome to my world' - Spurs win battle of fallen giants against callow United 

Ange Postecoglou was also able to bring back three more of his long-term injured as substitutes. 

UNDER PRESSURE: Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim with his squad. John Walton/PA Wire.

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1 (Maddison 13) MANCHESTER UNITED 0 

IT IS a bizarre quirk of the revamped UEFA competitions that Tottenham and Manchester United could both finish in the bottom half of the Premier League but end the season playing out the Europa League final with a trophy and a place in next season's Champions League at stake.

These two fallen giants of English football are still favourites to win Europe's second-tier competition despite their domestic struggles, and cannot meet before the final in Bilbao in May. Some wags say they cannot meet in the final, either, because of their poor form, but on the evidence of a chilly afternoon in north London, Spurs are better placed to give it a go, especially with key players starting to return to Ange Postecoglou's heavily depleted team.

Guglielem Vicario took his place between the goalposts for the first time since Tottenham turned over that other lot from Manchester, at City, in a 4-0 win in November. Vicario broke his ankle in that game, and in his absence Postecoglou has tried three different goalkeepers without finding an adequate stand-in. Vicario showed why he was missed with an excellent performance on Sunday, making good saves to deny Alejandro Garnacho twice, Rasmus Hojlund and Casemiro.

James Maddison made a more decisive impact on his return from injury, scoring the game's only goal in the 13th minute and celebrating with a 'shushing' gesture, no doubt making a point to Roy Keane, who had belittled the England midfielder earlier in the week.

Postecoglou was also able to bring back three more of his long-term injured as substitutes, to suggest Tottenham could yet end the season strongly if they can back get all of their major absentees – striker Dominic Solanke and centre-backs Christian Romero and Micky Van de Ven.

For Ruben Amorim, there is little prospect of returning heroes riding to United's rescue in what has become a grim season. Amad Diallo, one of the few bright sparks this season, looks to be out for the rest of the season after injuring his ankle in training, Lisandro Martinez's season is also over, and Kobbie Mainoo and Manuel Ugarte have joined Mason Mount and Luke Shaw in the injury room, while Lenny Yoro and Christian Eriksen were ill.

Postecoglou sympathised with Amorim – to an extent.

“If I check my office, I don’t have any sympathy cards from other managers, but there’s definitely empathy there for Ruben. I could see he had players out of position, kids on the bench. Welcome to my world. But that's for one game. Now do that for two months. Any club. I thought Man United were good today, considering all that, and we had our days when we were good.” 

In the Tottenham camp, there was a mood of renewed belief before kick-off, and relief after the final whistle, with big game players back to help them over the line.

“It does make a massive difference,” added Postecoglou. “Getting guys like Vic and Madders contributing straight away, you can see the quality they have and the presence they have, plus others coming off the bench. It might take them one or two games to get up to speed, but the fact we have them available, it's an enormous boost for us.” 

There was not a huge difference between the sides, and United could have nicked a point if Garnacho and his fellow forwards had been more ruthless, but Spurs were just as guilty of missing chances as they caught United on the break in the closing stages, with new signing Mathys Tel guilty spurning good openings.

Neither side are going to worry Liverpool, Arsenal or City any time soon in terms of a title challenge, but at least Postecoglou can start to look upwards with a healthier and fuller roster of players for the final third of the season.

“It's only February and there’s a fair way to go. We’re in the Europa League and we’ve got an opportunity there to make an impact. But I thought we could make an impact in the league. Today was a step towards that. We can play better, for sure. We will play better. We’ve got an opportunity to address the situation we’re in.” 

Amorim has to hope his injury situation does not get worse, or United could get sucked into relegation scrap, just 12 points above Ipswich Town in 18th.

“We need to focus on the next game, not on the big picture,” he said.

“In one week, we lost so many players and everything is going wrong. Now it is time to focus on one game at a time, keep players healthy and recover some more. The end of the season is time to focus on the big picture.”