It had been billed as a battle between Teddy Sheringham and Jurgen Klinsmann.
And the former Tottenham team-mates, who scored 52 goals in a golden season at
White Hart Lane three years ago, embraced on the halfway line before the match
began.
But in truth it was the only time they took centre stage in a disappointing
match which still saw a below par United forge seven points clear at the top of
the Premiership.
Indeed Sheringham had a quiet game by his standards, leaving the stage for
United's glamour boys Ryan Giggs and David Beckham to take the glory.
Beckham, who boosts his playboy image by jetting off to a Paris fashion show
this week, provided the little inspiration which was on show at Old Trafford
with some pinpoint crosses.
And the outstanding Giggs was on hand to score two cracking goals - one in
each half.
But it is a measure of United's domination of the Premiership this season that
they can win games like this at a canter while playing only to around 80 per
cent of their potential.
It was not pretty to watch, in parts it was down right dour, but the only
statistic United boss Alex Ferguson will be bothered about is that it was their
ninth win in 10 games.
Maybe the side was suffering a hangover from that dramatic 5-3 FA Cup third
round victory over Chelsea last Sunday.
It did not look that way when Andy Cole brought an instinctive save from Espen
Baardsen, the Norwegian goalkeeper deputising for the injured Ian Walker, after
just two minutes.
And the Premiership's leading scorer was by far United's most lively weapon on
a day when too many passes went astray and too few shots hit the target.
United, however, lifted themselves out of their lethargy in the 43rd minute
when Beckham supplied a looping shot from the right-hand side .
Baardsen dropped the ball under pressure from Sheringham and Giggs drove in
a quite venomous volley from 16 yards.
It should have inspired United to greater things but try as they might they
could not find the fluency of recent weeks against a side which is beginning to
respond to new manager Christian Gross.
Sheringham had a 20-yard shot saved just after the interval and Cole, who with
each game surely books his ticket to the World Cup finals in France this summer,
continued to be a constant danger.
But it was the Beckham-Giggs combination which gave United the breathing space
their superior workrate deserved.
He swept in another of those waspish crosses from the right in the 67th minute
and Giggs rose at the far post to slot home a rare headed goal for his sixth
strike of the season.
In truth, it was a stroll after that for a United side superior in every
department.
Spurs boss Gross, can at least take solace in the fact that his side's passion
and commitment, so fragile this season, could not be faulted.
But Klinsmann, playing his third match since his move from Sampdoria, was
still way short of the electric form which once made him such a feared striker.
Indeed his main contribution was a booking in the 60th minute when he
uncharacteristically booted the ball into the stand after the whistle had been
blown.
Nicola Berti, the former Italian international signed by Spurs on a free
transfer from Inter Milan in midweek, fared little better.
The midfield man blasted one shot over the bar in the 82nd minute but apart
from that was virtually anonymous on a disappointing debut.
In the end it was a match which did not really tell us anything new. United
are marching to the title and Spurs will struggle to stay in the Premiership.
Teams:
Man Utd: Schmeichel, Neville, Irwin, Johnsen, Pallister, Beckham, Cole, Sheringham, Giggs, Scholes, Solskjaer.
Subs Not Used: Butt, McClair, Berg, Clegg, Pilkington.
Goals: Giggs 44, 67.
Tottenham: Baardsen, Calderwood, Fox (Brady 77), Carr, Vega, Wilson, Domingues, Campbell, Clemence (Sinton 54), Klinsmann, Berti.
Subs Not Used: Brown, Mabbutt, Mahorn.
Booked: Klinsmann.
Att: 55,281
Ref: P E Alcock (Redhill).
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