Man United Stun Spurs at White Hart Lane

Manchester United moved within two points of the Premier League summit after condemning Tottenham Hotspur to their first home defeat since August with a brutal display of clinical finishing Sunday evening.

Tottenham dominated large parts of the game, but were lacking in creativity and when given the opportunities, United were simply devastating as they ran out to a 3-1 win.

Spurs thought they had taken the lead when Louis Saha’s shot flew in off Emmanuel Adebayor, but referee Martin Atkinson ruled it out for handball and from then on, the visitors put the home side to the sword with a display that showed exactly why they are firmly in the hunt for their 20th league title.

“It was a great performance by Spurs in the first half,” said United coach Sir Alex Ferguson. “Maybe we got tactics wrong. We had a bit of luck scoring right before half-time with our first effort on goal. That was a killer for Tottenham.

“We improved after half-time, but we really needed the second goal to give us confidence. It was a massive result and a massive performance by our defenders. They have dug in and we showed the determination to get the result.”

Wayne Rooney rose to nod home an Ashley Young corner on the stroke of half-time and the former Aston Villa man then went on to add two in the second half, the first an acrobatic scissor kick, and the second a world-class drive from 30 yards.

Jermain Defoe pulled one back for the hosts with three minutes left, but the game had already long gone by that point.

The defeat, Tottenham’s first at home since Manchester City thumped them 5-1 in August, effectively ends any marginal hopes the Londoners may have had of clinching their first title since 1961 and they are now only four points ahead of Arsenal ahead of a tough run of fixtures.

United, meanwhile, sit two points behind leaders and bitter local rivals Manchester City and the season looks set to be decided by the showdown between the two sides next month.

This fixture has brought about many classics in the past, but today’s game started off slowly on a soggy afternoon in north London.

The absence of the suspended Scott Parker, injury victim Rafael van der Vaart and the ill Gareth Bale hit Spurs, although Sandro and youngster Jake Livermore did their best to deal with the imposing United midfield.

The visitors dominated the opening 15 minutes with Paul Scholes giving a master class in dictating the play in the middle of the park.