Some things never change. Tottenham Hotspur bottled it at Old Trafford. Tottenham Hotspur try and blame it on anything they can.

Since Spurs last beat United away, we have met 26 times in all competitions at OT and United have beaten them on 21 occasions.

For all their bleating in the press that now they were ready to end this record, they came up North and yet again failed to impress.

United had 10 shots on target to their 2, had more possession, had a better passing completion rate, had a better tackling completion rate, and more importantly, put the ball in the back of the net twice, compared to the zero times Spurs managed to the same. (Stats from Opta Stats, as seen on Sky Sports)

A couple of seasons ago, Spurs took a 2-0 lead at Old Trafford before United were awarded a penalty. Replays showed that Gomes got a finger to the ball before taking Michael Carrick out, resulting in fury from Spurs’ fans, players and manager. United scored the penalty to make it 2-1, then went on to score another 4 goals, winning the game 5-2. Irrelevant. It didn’t matter one jot that Spurs conceded FOUR GOALS, Spurs had been robbed. (We’ll also ignore that Spurs should have gone down to ten men after six minutes, because that might give people the impression that decisions go for and against teams every week, not just against Spurs, the victims in all of this)

Today, Gomes chose not to play to the whistle, putting the ball on the crowd and going mental when Nani took advantage of this. There was 6 minutes remaining and in those remaining Spurs did, erm, nothing. So the obvious conclusion is that Spurs have been robbed again, obviously.

So, heaven forbid that Spurs actually hold their hands up and acknowledge that, yet again they weren’t good enough, and that if they score zero goals in a game they deserve zero from it. 1-0, 2-0, it makes no difference, you lost because you couldn’t score and we could. Whether you believe Nani is to blame for the second goal, Clattenburg, Gomes or anyone, it is actually irrelevant, given that it was the second goal in a 2-0 win. Had that goal changed the result, frustration with Nani/Clattenburg/Gomes would be understandable, as it is, why do you care?

Oh well Tottingham, there’s always next year!