Man United vs Tottenham: two sides with one win between them

Manchester United vs Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford, 17:30 BST on Saturday 10 October, is a match between two clubs with one league win between them. United have five points from five and a single victory. Tottenham have two points and none, and they are bottom of the table.

Spurs arrive off a 3-2 home defeat by Aston Villa in which they had 64% of the ball, twenty shots and eleven corners, and scored twice in the last five minutes after going three down. Those two goals doubled their total for the season.

United: twenty-nine shots and one goal

United lost 2-0 at Hull City on the opening weekend, beat Ipswich Town 5-2, drew 2-2 at Everton, lost 1-0 at home to Manchester City and drew 1-1 at Fulham. Eight scored, eight conceded, and five of those eight goals came against Ipswich.

At Craven Cottage they had twenty-nine shots and needed an eighty-ninth-minute strike from Matheus Cunha to equalise an own goal. At Old Trafford they have won once and lost once, five scored and three conceded. They have not kept a clean sheet all season.

Tottenham: two goals in five matches

Tottenham lost 3-0 at Brentford, lost 2-0 at home to Newcastle United, drew 0-0 at Nottingham Forest, drew 0-0 with Everton and lost 3-2 to Aston Villa. Two scored, eight conceded, and four of the five matches ended without a Tottenham goal.

Away from home they have not scored: a 3-0 defeat at Brentford and a goalless draw at the City Ground. They have kept two clean sheets, both in the goalless draws, which is the only evidence of a side that can hold a match. The problem is entirely at the other end.

• Manchester United: 5 points from their first five, 8 scored, 8 conceded, no clean sheets
• United at home: won 1, lost 1, 5 scored, 3 conceded
• Tottenham: 2 points from their first five, 2 scored, 8 conceded, no wins
• Tottenham have failed to score in four of their five matches, including both away games
• Kick-off: Saturday 10 October, 17:30 BST, Old Trafford

Last time out

United drew 1-1 at Fulham on 20 September. They went behind to an own goal by Lisandro Martinez on sixty-three minutes and equalised through Matheus Cunha, from outside the box, on eighty-nine. They had twenty-nine shots, thirteen corners and six on target, and no booking.

Tottenham lost 3-2 at home to Aston Villa the day before. Villa led 3-0 through Johan Manzambi, Nicolas Jackson and Emiliano Buendia before Conor Gallagher and Jan Paul van Hecke scored in the last five minutes. Spurs had 63.8% of the ball, twenty shots and eleven corners to Villa’s one.

Where the table stands

After five matches United are twelfth on five points and Tottenham twentieth on two, level with Fulham at the bottom. United’s goal difference is exactly zero; Tottenham’s is minus six, the second-worst in the division behind Coventry’s minus nine.

A Tottenham win would be their first of the season and could lift them out of the bottom three. A United win would be only their second of the campaign and take them to eight points.

What decides it

United create a great deal and finish very little; Tottenham create a great deal and finish almost nothing. At Fulham United took twenty-nine shots, against Villa Spurs took twenty. The side that turns volume into goals on Saturday probably wins, and neither has shown it can do so consistently.

The stakes are uneven. A defeat for Spurs keeps them at the bottom after six matches; a defeat for United would be a third in six and a fourth match without a win. Neither club will want to be the one that gives the other its season’s momentum.

Old Trafford has not been a fortress for United either. They beat Ipswich there 5-2 and lost 1-0 to Manchester City, and they have not kept a clean sheet anywhere this season. Tottenham have kept two, both in goalless away-and-home draws, which is the one part of their game that has held up. If Spurs are to take anything, the evidence says it will be by keeping United out rather than by outscoring them.

Simulate it before it happens

United finish little and Tottenham finish almost nothing. On the Premier League simulator you can run Saturday’s match now and see which side breaks the pattern.

• Play the remaining 33 rounds from the real table and the real fixture list
• Run this fixture through the AI match simulator, in tactical view or in the physics arena
• Open the line-up builder for both clubs before you kick off a simulation
• Turn an arena simulation into a vertical video ready to share

"Tottenham have scored two goals in five matches. United took twenty-nine shots at Fulham to score one."