For Erik ten Hag, a list of dreadful days as Manchester United manager was already rather too long. Quite where this ranks is a moot point, but it was wretched, both shocking and yet familiar. Outclassed by Tottenham Hotspur even before they were outnumbered by them, United again looked an expensive, incoherent mess.
While Ten Hag was serenaded by the Spurs fans with chants of “sacked in the morning”, one of United’s leaders actually did get his marching orders. Bruno Fernandes’s red card was a symptom of United’s problems: passive for too long, they were petulant at times, their attempts to halt Tottenham verging on the desperate, their plans falling apart.
On Thursday, Ten Hag claimed that United had turned a corner. Instead, this season feels a continuation of the last – a campaign that could be littered with ignominies. An eighth defeat in 20 league games at Old Trafford underlines how far they have fallen. United’s new hierarchy can talk of winning the title by 2028 but they are already six points off fifth, in the bottom half and with a negative goal difference.
The table may not lie. Just as Liverpool did last month, Spurs exposed the gulf with rivals. Tottenham have similar immediate aims, of Champions League qualification this season, but whereas United’s looked built on delusion, there seems a realism to theirs.
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