Drab to dramatic - but questions for Spurs & Man Utd after 'strange' draw

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A dramatic - or drab - Saturday lunchtime Premier League match with as many questions as answers, and for Manchester United a major injury scare.

It is difficult to know where to start when it comes to analysing Tottenham's 2-2 draw with Manchester United.

First, the scare.

United striker Benjamin Sesko was introduced into the game for Noussair Mazraoui after 58 minutes.

The Slovenian had already wasted a couple of opportunities when he suffered an injury three minutes from time chasing down a long ball. It was immediately obvious Sesko could not continue, and as United had already used all five substitutes they had to complete the game, which stood at 1-1, with 10 men.

Head coach Ruben Amorim confirmed afterwards Sesko had sustained a knee injury, but did not know how serious it was. However, in connection to a question about the January transfer window, Amorim said "because it's the knee you never know" - the inference being it might be.

That would be a major issue, particularly as United will lose two of their main offensive threats - Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo - to the Africa Cup of Nations in December.

"We have to check, it's something in his knee," said Amorim.

On the transfer situation: "We have to check everything. We have to check what has happened with Ben.

"Of course, we are going to have a problem there, but we already knew."

Losing Sesko would be an unhappy postscript to a very strange game.

With 10 minutes remaining, Tottenham looked certain to be heading for a third successive home defeat in the Premier League as they were unable to find a response to Mbeumo's first-half header.

But, just as they did at Nottingham Forest a week earlier, United were undone by a cross and after conceding once, they gave away another, as Richarlison emotionally celebrated what he thought was a stoppage-time winner.

But, just as they did at Nottingham Forest, United equalised, this time leaving it really late, the final minute of six added on as Matthijs de Ligt rescued the 10 men.

"The emotions inside me are high," smiled Tottenham boss Thomas Frank as he spoke to the media afterwards.

The detail takes a bit of digging for.

For his part, Amorim felt, unlike at Nottingham Forest, his side were "comfortable in the game". Too comfortable as it turned out.

"We should do better, be more aggressive, feel the environment in the stadium," he added.

"The three points were there, the space was there. We felt too comfortable. We need to expect that in one play anything can happen and change the mood in the stadium. Today was that."

The result extended Manchester United's unbeaten run to five games. But for the second week in succession, they had been second in the 'as it stands' table and blew their lead.

"We have a lot of problems," said Amorim. "We are just in the beginning.

"Sometimes the results show people we are improving but have a lot to do."

The main problem, Amorim said, came through his side's response to losing the experience of Casemiro and Harry Maguire, both of whom have contracts expiring in the summer.

Kobbie Mainoo was missing through injury and Manuel Ugarte is not good enough when it comes to Casemiro's available replacements. For Maguire, Leny Yoro has already swapped places a few times this season but, at 19, lacks Maguire's longevity and game intelligence.

United have conceded two goals in each of their past three games now. Amorim said on Thursday his side have an issue there.

His explanation was a lack of aggressive intent to cut out crosses.

We have to take him on his word about that.

But we also have to take Frank at his word when he said his selection of two direct forward players in Richarlison and Randal Kolo Muani was based around exploiting his opponent's vulnerability.

"We wanted two strikers for the crosses, which we thought was an area where we could potentially hurt United," said Frank, pointing to an early chance Richarlison wasted as evidence his selection was the right one.

But the former Brentford boss was also mixing his messages.

Frank felt Tottenham had done well to limit United to five shots.

Yet that, he stressed, was not the same as saying his defence had actually played well.

"I don't think I said they played well," he said.

"The two shots they had, maybe even on target, were two situations we probably could have done better in.

"We will, of course, look through that and go through the details."

The biggest plus from a Tottenham perspective was they did not lose a third Premier League home game in a row, which also means they avoided a 10th home defeat in 2025, which would have been a record for a calendar year.

However, they have still only collected 14 points from their past 20 home games. No top-flight side has a worse record than that.

Still, on a strange day, when neither side played well but both contributed to a memorable game, taking the positives, for Frank, included not losing.

"We are playing at home and I know we need to win so we don't talk about it [losing at home]," he said.

"But the way we stayed in the game in the second half and kept doing the right things, I am very happy with that.

"It was a game where both teams tried to cancel each other out a little bit.

"We always want to create a little bit more but you can flip it and say, hey, we scored two goals in a situation where it was difficult to create."

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