Cavani and Greenwood Makes Manchester United Win at Tottenham Hotspur
Late goals from Edinson Cavani and Mason Greenwood sealed Manchester United from a 3-1 comeback against Tottenham Hotspur, cementing their place in the top four in the Premier League and leaving the London club’s hopes of joining them on Sunday dim.
Cavani had a controversial goal disallowed in an otherwise boring first half shortly before Son Heung-min gave Tottenham a lead in the 40th minute with his first shot on goal.
The second half was much more lively with United dominating.
Fred tied from close behind just before the hour mark and Cavani then made up for his frustration in the first half by diving to return home in the 79th minute.
The closest Tottenham came to a draw was when Cavani headed a punt attempt against his own post.
But substitute Greenwood was assured of victory when he outscored Hugo Lloris with almost the final kick.
United’s second-place victory allowed them to cut runaway leader Manchester City’s lead to 11 points after playing one game less, but perhaps more importantly, they are nine points ahead of Chelsea. which ranks fifth.
Tottenham remains in seventh place, six points behind fourth-ranked West Ham United.
It was a result that said a lot about both teams.
While United is now undefeated in their last 23 Premier League away games – just four short of Arsenal’s record – Tottenham has now dropped 18 points from Premier League winning positions this season.
It was also a sweet rematch for United, who fell 6-1 at home to Tottenham at the start of the season.
“We owed Tottenham a proper game, we had it in mind, and today was much better than last time,” United midfielder Scott McTominay said.
The first half-hour was turgid, but things perked up considerably in the 34th minute when United opened up Tottenham’s defense with Cavani shooting Hugo Lloris after being played by Paul Pogba.
However, United’s celebrations were interrupted when VAR directed referee Chris Kavanagh to check a monitor to see if McTominay had caught Son in the face with his arm in preparation. It seemed accidental, but Kavanagh thought otherwise, much to the frustration of the United players.
“The game is gone. The game is absolutely gone, ”United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said of the decision.
To put salt on United’s wounds, Son opened the scoring shortly after Tottenham’s long possession streak that ended with Harry Kane playing Lucas Moura, whose pass was passed by Dean Henderson for the South Korean.
Solskjaer said the injustice they felt “got his team going” and that they were much better after the break with Lloris denying Bruno Fernandes with a good low save and Pogba close to coming back from a draw.
However, the pressure finally said as United reopened Tottenham’s defense and while Lloris did well to save Cavani’s effort, the ball fell for Fred to ram into the tie.
Son forced a decent save from Henderson when Tottenham responded, but United seemed the stronger side, and Greenwood, who replaced Marcus Rashford in the 72nd minute, chose Cavani to put their team ahead.
She is a freelance blogger, writer, and speaker, and writes for various entertainment magazines.