Manchester United bounced back from humiliation at home to Liverpool to lift the pressure on besieged manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and turn the heat on his Tottenham counterpart Nuno Espirito Santo with a 3-0 win in a Premier League fixture at the Tottenham Stadium.
Cristiano Ronaldo was the inspiration behind an excellent United display which provided the perfect response to last week’s 5-0 thrashing at Old Trafford that raised questions over Solskjaer’s future.
In contrast, Spurs were mediocre with Harry Kane barely in the game and unrest among their fans, who turned on manager Nuno when he replaced Lucas Moura with Steven Bergwijn in the second half.
Marcus Rashford wrapped things up with a cool finish four minutes from time as Spurs fans erupted in fury against Nuno and their chairman, with chants of “We want Levy out” echoing around the vast stadium.
Ronaldo demonstrated his world-class talent just when Solskjaer and United needed it most in a game they simply could not afford to lose.
Aided by the tireless and outstanding Cavani, the Portuguese striker added the flourishes to a United performance that was a huge improvement on that catastrophe against Liverpool, although that was not difficult and Spurs were very poor opponents.
Ronaldo was a constant threat with his movement, also seeing a thunderous strike ruled out for offside as United dominated.
He showed glorious technique for his goal then demonstrated the perfect link-up with Cavani to send the Uruguayan in for a typically composed to finish which effectively ended the contest.
Solskjaer was able to restore Raphael Varane to his defence alongside captain Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof in a back three that dealt comfortably with the flimsy attacking efforts of out-of-sorts Spurs.
And while this must be placed in the context that Spurs are simply not in the same class as Liverpool, it was still a very satisfying 90 minutes for Solskjaer after what has been a harrowing week in the aftermath of that destruction by Liverpool in front of their own fans.
It can only be the start, however, with United playing Atalanta in Italy in the Champions League this week before a derby meeting with Manchester City at Old Trafford on Saturday lunchtime.
Spurs manager Nuno has been struggling to win over supporters but the atmosphere inside this vast arena turned mutinous as they slipped tamely to defeat here.
They were already in a grim mood before Nuno made the highly-contentious decision to replace Moura with Bergwijn nine minutes after the break. The stadium was engulfed in loud boos and chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” aimed at Nuno.
And when Rashford raced through more non-existent defending late on to add insult to injury, Chairman Daniel Levy was in the firing line as thousands of Spurs fans got up and left.
Tottenham failed to have a shot on target with even Kane feeling the frustration of the home fans when a cross went astray.
BBC
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