London: Tottenham Hotspur hammered another nail into Manchester United’s creaking Premier League title defence with a 2-1 victory at Old Trafford on New Year’s Day.
Having won their previous six games in all competitions, United were hoping to match wins by their fellow title rivals, but instead they slumped to a sixth defeat of the season that left them 11 points off the pace.
Tottenham, unbeaten in the league under new manager Tim Sherwood, took a 34th-minute lead when Emmanuel Adebayor outjumped Chris Smalling to head home Christian Eriksen’s right-wing centre. Eriksen added a second in the 66th minute, smuggling a header past David de Gea from Aaron Lennon’s cross.
Danny Welbeck reduced the arrears immediately from Adnan Januzaj’s incisive pass, but Spurs withstood United’s late onslaught, with goalkeeper Hugo Lloris saving from Javier Hernandez, Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic.
Victory took Spurs above United into sixth place, two points outside the top four, with the defending champions three points further back in seventh.
“All you can do is play well and hopefully you take your opportunities when they come and you don’t make some small mistakes,” United manager David Moyes told BT Sport.
“But overall the players played really well and their effort to try and get back in the game after going 2-0 down was terrific. We’ll keep trying to win the next game. That’s all you can do. We’re not necessarily looking at the league table,” he added.
Earlier, Nicklas Bendtner and Theo Walcott scored last-gasp goals as Arsenal edged Cardiff City 2-0 to preserve their place at the top of the table.
With former United striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in attendance, amid reports he is due to succeed the sacked Malky Mackay as Cardiff manager, Arsenal dominated but had to wait until the 88th minute for Bendtner to break the deadlock.
Walcott added a second goal in injury time to rubber-stamp Arsenal’s return to first place.
Solskjaer is Cardiff coach
London: Former Manchester United striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was named as manager of English Premier League strugglers Cardiff City on Thursday and told the fans one of his immediate aims was to finish higher than rivals Swansea City.
The 40-year-old Norwegian, who earned a place in United’s history by scoring the winning goal in the 1999 Champions League final against Bayern Munich, replaces Scot Malky Mackay who was fired last week.
And just as he did as a player, Solskjaer hit the target perfectly when he told a news conference: “I would like us to finish above Swansea, that must be an aim...That will be important for everyone here.”
Solskjaer also discounted suggestions in the British media that former United manager Alex Ferguson had tried to dissuade him from taking the job. “Absolute nonsense,” he said.
