Manchester United clash gives Tottenham chance to end boom-and-bust cycle

Dan Kilpatrick @Dan_KP11 March 2022

A win at Old Trafford tomorrow would strengthen Tottenham’s top-four claims but, perhaps as importantly, end their frustrating boom-and-bust cycle.

To Antonio Conte’s exasperation, Spurs have followed all six of their victories since the turn of the year with flat defeats and the visit to Manchester United offers a chance to finally establish a degree of consistency, as well as close the gap to fourth-placed Arsenal.

Conte’s mood goes hand-in-hand with his side’s results and he has lurched from joy to despair like a metronome in the last few months.

The head coach has predictably been more optimistic since Monday’s 5-0 thrashing of Everton, after which he challenged his side to finish fourth, and there are more reasons to be positive ahead of tomorrow’s crunch game.

Conte has consistently said that Spurs need one of the big four, in which he includes United, to slip up to return to the Champions League next season, but arguably their two best performances under the Italian have come against Manchester City and Liverpool.

Spurs are better when there are not expected to comfortably win, while Conte’s team are still more effective on the counter-attack than during structured possession.

United’s need to play on the front foot at home, and their rabble of a back line, should suit the visitors, especially with Harry Kane having rarely looked so good. “He can become the best striker in the world,” Conte said yesterday.

United’s problems were underlined by the chastening defeat at City, which appeared as much down to their tactical and technical shortcomings as a lack of basic fight and desire.

Cristiano Ronaldo feels like an increasingly malign influence in the dressing room, while a number of their leading stars, from Bruno Fernandes to Harry Maguire to Marcus Rashford, are desperately short of form.

Conte may also be motivated by proving a point, with United known to consider the former Chelsea coach to be too high maintenance while mooting possible replacements for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Their lack of interest may have proved influential in persuading Conte to choose Spurs at the second time of asking following United’s sliding-doors 3-0 win over Spurs in October, which kept Solskjaer in a job and led to Nuno Espirito Santo’s sacking.

Conte’s histrionics since suggest United may have had a point, but their hesitance will have backfired if he can guide a clearly weaker Spurs squad back to the Champions League ahead of them.

“When United decided to sack Solksjaer, I [had] signed for Tottenham,” Conte said. “I am so focused on this job that I didn’t read this [about United’s interest]. The present is Tottenham for me. I am enjoying to work with this club, with these players. We are trying to improve, raise our level, this is my target. I repeat: I am enjoying doing it.”

The loss of Ryan Sessegnon, who faces at least a month on the sidelines with another hamstring injury, has further depleted Conte’s thin squad, and he yesterday admitted to being “really worried” about Oliver Skipp’s struggles to overcome a groin infection which has kept him sidelined since January.

In Skipp’s absence, Conte knows he cannot afford to lose another midfielder, even for a single game. January signings Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski are sure to start again and already feel pivotal to Tottenham’s hopes of overhauling United, Arsenal and West Ham. Kulusevski’s impact so far is comparable to Fernandes’s when he joined United in 2020 or Jesse Lingard on loan at West Ham last year.

Getty Images

Tomorrow’s game will be quickly followed by Wednesday’s trip to Brighton, which oddly feels as big a challenge on paper, given Spurs’ dramatically improved results when they have five days or more to prepare for matches. But Conte will be hoping this is the week where his side begin to buck their established trends.

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