Man United ease pressure on Ole Gunnar with 3-0 win at Tottenham
Football
By
Reuters
| Oct 30, 2021
Manchester United thrashed Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 with goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani and Marcus Rashford in the Premier League on Saturday to ease the pressure on manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Ronaldo struck in the 39th minute with a perfect right-foot volley into the far corner of Hugo Lloris's net from a glorious pass by Portuguese compatriot Bruno Fernandes.
Cavani added the second in the 64th and substitute Rashford wrapped up a comfortable win four minutes from time as United put last weekend's 5-0 home drubbing by Liverpool behind them.
United climbed to fifth on 17 points from 10 games, while Nuno Espirito Santo's shot-shy Spurs side, who failed to trouble United goalkeeper David De Gea, are eighth on 15.
United came into the match following a week in which questions were raised about the future of Solskjaer after arch-rivals Liverpool ran them ragged at Old Trafford on Sunday.
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But led by the class of Ronaldo the visitors dug in and battled for their under-fire boss in a first half which ended with the Portuguese volleying the opener to settle his side.
It was Ronaldo's 11th goal in 19 games against Spurs and the forward has scored more times against the London side than any other English team during his career.
Tottenham struggled to carve out any clear openings with Harry Kane lacking support despite the efforts of Son Heung-min and Lucas Moura, whose substitution was booed by the home fans.
Ten minutes later Cavani was played through by Ronaldo and the Uruguayan calmly clipped the ball into the net to give United breathing space and silence the disgruntled home crowd.
It was left for Rashford to come off the bench and apply the coup de grace with a simple finish to give Solskjaer hope that he can turn the season around and save his job.
By contrast, Tottenham manager Nuno now finds the spotlight fixed on his tenure in his first season in charge with his side lacking creativity as they failed to manage a shot on target.
Spurs have scored their fewest goals after 10 league games since 2013-14 when they also got nine, while United kept their second clean sheet in 22 games in all competitions.