United would have been routed by the ruthless Spurs attack had it not been David de Gea in goal. The Goalkeeper of the Year made save after save and kept the scoreline respectable as United trudged home to another disappointing result.
United got off to the worst possible start possible as Wayne Rooney lost his man Victor Wanyama. The latter gave Spurs the lead through a bullet header which De Gea could not do much about. After Spurs’ goal, it was wave after wave of attacks at United’s brittle defence. And De Gea almost single-handedly stopped them all.
De Gea’s first important save was the one he produced when one-v-one with Son. De Gea remained on his feet and did not go to ground easily. The smaller target saw Son fire straight at De Gea who calmly dealt with the danger. De Gea was worried by Eriksen’s deflected cross and scrambled across his goal line and punched out the danger. De Gea was again on hand to keep Dele Alli out with a sublime one-handed save. De Gea also made a smart stop with his legs at the near post from a Kane shot.
The only blemish in the Spaniard’s first half display was the judgmental error he made while coming to collect a cross. De Gea reached there after Kane and was lucky to see the ball bounce off the crossbar.
Like in the first goal, De Gea could do little about Spurs’ second and Kane had finally beaten him. The second half saw De Gea make routine saves. De Gea would have been happy to see Jones’ goal line clearance of an Alli shot.
The Spaniard again stood tall in a day to forget for the Red Devils. And unless United keep him or sign Neuer, they will begin next campaign with an inferior goalkeeper.