Man U fans boo players after 3-0 home defeat by Spurs

MANCHESTER, England (AP):

By the time Dominic Solanke slid in Tottenham’s third goal, some Manchester United fans had seen enough.

Trailing 3-0 after 77 chastening minutes at Old Trafford, they vacated their seats and headed out into the Manchester rain. In the background were the mocking sounds of the visiting Spurs supporters.

“Is there a fire drill?” came a joyous chorus from the away end.

There have been many occasions like this under Erik ten Hag. When his team has looked bereft of ideas and confidence. When a stadium known as the Theatre of Dreams has become the stuff of nightmares.

“First we have to deal with this and show resilience. This is not good enough,” Ten Hag admitted afterward. “We have to accept this and get better. Focus on the next game and do things better than we did today.”

Tottenham’s victory mirrored Liverpool’s win by the same margin in United’s previous Premier League home game at the start of the month.

Ten Hag said similar things back then, but problems persist.

THIRD LOSS

Goals by Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke consigned United to a third loss in the league already this season. The record 20-time champions who were reduced to 10 men after Bruno Fernandes’ red card, are 12th in the standings after just one win in their last five games in the league.

United have also failed to win any of their last three games in all competitions, and there were boos inside the stadium from some of the fans that remained at the final whistle.

Spurs supporters were even more brutal during the game, chanting: “You’re getting sacked (fired) in the morning.”

Ten Hag, who only held onto his job after winning the FA Cup last season and being subjected to an end-of-year review, said such thoughts weren’t on his mind –even in the face of such a troubled start to the campaign and a slew of changes made under new minority owner Jim Ratcliffe.

“No, I’m not thinking about this. We all made, in togetherness, this decision to stay together,” he said, adding that all parties “knew it would take some time”.

As bad as this latest setback for Ten Hag was, it could have been worse, with goalkeeper Andre Onana twice denying Timo Werner in one-on-one situations with the forward. He also stopped Solanke from scoring his second when through on goal late on.

United got off to a terrible start. They went behind in the third minute when Johnson was left with an open net to aim at after defender Micky van de Ven was allowed to run from his own half and cross from inside the box in the third minute.

United were lucky not to go further behind before half-time as Tottenham dominated and even came close to an equaliser when Alejandro Garnacho volleyed against the post with a rare chance for the home team.

But any chance of a comeback was dealt a major blow after Fernandes was shown a straight red for a studs-up challenge on James Maddison shortly before the break.

Spurs didn’t have to wait long to double the lead, with Kulusevski adding a second two minutes into the second half by flicking a shot past Onana from Johnson’s cross.

“We were real good. Obviously, it is a great victory,” Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou said. “That is everything we want to be.”

Aston Villa missed the chance to move level on points with Premier League leader Liverpool after a 2-2 draw at Ipswich earlier Sunday.

Liam Delap scored twice for newly promoted Ipswich to earn a point at Portman Road.

Villa had led 2-1 at half-time, but Delap’s goal in the 72nd ensured the points were shared.