Tottenham escape late onslaught to draw with United

Despite leading for much of the game, Tottenham will be thankful to take a draw from Manchester United, after a late siege by the away side.

Both managers decided to leave out key players from their starting line-ups, France internationals Tanguy Ndombele and Paul Pogba on the bench for their respective sides.

The opening of the game appeared to take shape in the same way as many others after the prolonged break, with the teams adjusting to the speed of the game.

Heung-Min Son’s shot tested the palms of David de Gea whilst Marcus Rashford’s effort was smartly stopped by the legs of Hugo Lloris.

Bruno Fernandes was next to go close for United, Tottenham happy to limit their visitors to half-chances before attempting to spring an attack on the break.

Their chance arrived on 27 minutes and was duly taken by Steven Bergwijn. After a long kick upfield by Lloris, the ball fell kindly to the young Dutchman.

He duly turned, drove past Harry Maguire and the rest of the defence before firing a low strike past de Gea, who would have been disappointed with his efforts to save.

A Son header was superbly tipped over the Spaniard five minutes later as Spurs looked to extend their advantage.

Fernandes again decided to unleash from range at the half came to a close but his shot was comfortably collected by Lloris, Jose Mourinho’s men taking a one-goal lead into the break.

Once again the second half began with more efforts by Fernandes, the Portuguese international firing a low effort just wide of the Tottenham goal.

The January signing was involved in all of United’s attacking play, rolling in Anthony Martial on two occasions, the latter forcing a brilliant stop from Spurs captain Lloris.

Despite spending much of the second half on the defensive, Mourinho would have pleased with the endeavour and effort displayed from his players.

Their hard work was undone with ten minutes to go when Jon Moss pointed to the spot. Substitute Pogo danced his way into the area past Eric Dier, the Englishman adjudged to have fouled the Frenchman when attempting to recover.

Fernandes stepped up and cooly sent the ‘keeper the wrong way to level the scores.

United thought they had another penalty on 90 minutes when Fernandes was brought down by Dier, VAR rightly overruling Moss’ original decision.

There was still time for chances to fall the way of Mason Greenwood and Fernandes once again, the first of which was a whisker of securing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team all three points.

Tottenham may dispute both of the penalty decisions but United were full value of their point as the race for the top four places carries on.