Manchester United vs Tottenham Preview: Bottom Plays Twelfth at Old Trafford, Two Goals in Five Games for Spurs, and Baleba Finally Ready to Start
The Premier League returns after a nineteen-day pause with the strangest version of this fixture in years. Manchester United are twelfth with five points from five games. Tottenham are bottom with two, still looking for a first league win of the season, and have scored twice in five matches. Neither manager is comfortable, both squads are missing bodies, and yet Old Trafford has been a brutal place for Spurs for a very long time: twenty-five United wins from thirty-four league meetings here. United also won this fixture 2-0 in February, which ended a run of one win in nine against Tottenham.
Two Very Different Kinds of Bad Start
United’s season reads as one win, two draws and two defeats. They lost 0-1 at home to Manchester City on 13 September, lost 2-3 at home to Brighton on 16 September, and then drew 1-1 away at Fulham on 20 September with a stoppage-time deflection. Five games, eight goals scored, eight conceded, twelfth in the table. Michael Carrick’s side have not won in three across all competitions.
Tottenham’s numbers are worse in the only column that matters. Roberto De Zerbi’s team drew 0-0 at home to Everton on 12 September, lost 1-3 at Liverpool on 15 September, then lost 2-3 at home to Aston Villa on 19 September. Two goals in five league matches. They have failed to score in four of the five. Dominic Solanke has started every league game and has managed one shot on target.
Yet the underlying picture is not identical to the table. Both teams keep the ball — United around 57 to 60 per cent, Tottenham around 59 to 61 per cent, both far above the league norm — and United are taking roughly 21 shots per match to Tottenham’s 14, against a league average near 12.5. The gap is conversion. United’s recent expected-goals figure sits near 1.9 per game; Tottenham’s near 1.0. That is what Carrick pointed to when he said Spurs “have played a lot better” than their points tally and “haven’t had the results they maybe deserve.” De Zerbi, asked whether this fixture still carries its old weight, answered plainly: “Yes, because we are Tottenham, and United-Tottenham are still big clubs in the Premier League.”
Head-to-Head: The Last Five
| Date | Competition | Result | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Feb 2026 | Premier League, Old Trafford | Man Utd 2-0 Tottenham | Manchester United |
| 8 Nov 2025 | Premier League, Tottenham | Tottenham 2-2 Man Utd | Draw |
| 21 May 2025 | Europa League final, Bilbao | Tottenham 1-0 Man Utd | Tottenham |
| 16 Feb 2025 | Premier League, Tottenham | Tottenham 1-0 Man Utd | Tottenham |
| 19 Dec 2024 | League Cup quarter-final, Tottenham | Tottenham 4-3 Man Utd | Tottenham |
Across the last ten meetings in all competitions Tottenham hold the edge: five wins to United’s two, with three draws and an average of three goals per game. Both teams scored in four of those ten and over 2.5 goals landed in five. At Old Trafford the story is completely different — thirty-four league meetings, twenty-five United wins, five for Spurs and four draws. United’s 2-0 in February was their first win in nine against this opponent.
Four Things to Watch
1. Whether Tottenham can score at all
Two goals in five league games, none in four of them, and a centre-forward who has started every match and produced a single shot on target. Tottenham’s wide options do create — Savio has nine key passes and two big chances from three starts — but the final action has not landed. Against a United side that concedes as freely as it scores, this is the most direct route back into the season for Spurs, and also the clearest sign if they cannot take it.
2. Carlos Baleba’s first start
The summer signing arrived from Brighton carrying an injury and has not played yet. Carrick said he has trained regularly through the break and is in line to start at the base of midfield. With Manuel Ugarte out, that is a straight change in the engine room of a team that has looked disconnected between its defence and its front line. How quickly he reads the tempo of a Premier League match at Old Trafford is one of the evening’s live questions.
3. Tottenham’s centre-back pairing
Micky van de Ven hurt a finger on international duty and was back in training on the Wednesday; Jan Paul van Hecke picked up a foot injury and did not train, leaving him facing a late fitness test. Behind them, Pedro Porro is still out. For a side that has conceded eight and cannot score, an unsettled back four in front of an away end is not the ideal starting point.
4. The match three days later
United travel to Atlético Madrid on 13 October in Europe. Carrick has nine players carrying some level of doubt, and a squad this stretched will have one eye on the plane. It is the kind of fixture that tempts a manager into protecting a player, and the kind that makes a team play cautiously in the first half.
Projected Personnel
Neither club had confirmed a starting lineup at the time of writing, and both were still assessing players who returned late from international duty. The names below are the players each side is expected to lean on; treat both as provisional and check the team sheets roughly an hour before kick-off. Reporting disagrees on several positions, noted underneath.
Manchester United
- GK Senne Lammens
- DF Diogo Dalot, Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martínez, Luke Shaw
- MF Youri Tielemans, Kobbie Mainoo — Carlos Baleba pushing to start
- AM Bruno Fernandes (captain) — 3 goals, 13 key passes
- WG Bryan Mbeumo — 2 goals, 10 key passes; Marcus Rashford
- ST Matheus Cunha — 2 goals in his last four
Out or unavailable: Benjamin Sesko (shin), Manuel Ugarte, Tom Heaton, Karl Darlow, Patrick Dorgu (hamstring), Noussair Mazraoui (knock). Doubtful: Matthijs de Ligt (back), Amad Diallo (ankle). Rashford and Mainoo withdrew from international duty and have trained only lightly.
Tottenham Hotspur
- GK Antonín Kinský
- DF Archie Gray, Micky van de Ven, Marcos Senesi, Destiny Udogie — Andrew Robertson also an option
- MF Rodrigo Bentancur, Sandro Tonali
- AM James Maddison or Mohammed Kudus
- WG Savinho, Omar Marmoush
- ST Dominic Solanke
Out: Xavi Simons (knee, long term), Wilson Odobert (knee, long term), Dejan Kulusevski (knee, over 500 days out but back in eleven-a-side training), Pedro Porro, Richarlison. Late tests: Jan Paul van Hecke (foot), Micky van de Ven (finger).
Where reporting differs: at left-back for United, several previews keep Mazraoui in the side despite his knock while others go straight to Shaw; in midfield, some have Baleba starting with Tielemans and others keep Mainoo. For Tottenham, the back four is not settled, and the attacking midfield slot is listed as Maddison by some and Mateus Fernandes by others. We have not picked a side in those arguments.
Key Battles
Bruno Fernandes against Rodrigo Bentancur
Fernandes wants the pocket between Tottenham’s midfield two and their centre-backs; Bentancur’s job is to close it. Fernandes arrives with three goals and thirteen key passes already this season. If he receives early and on the turn, Spurs have to abandon the compact shape their system depends on, which drags their back line deeper and opens the wings. If Bentancur holds the lane, United lose the central route that makes their whole approach work.
Bryan Mbeumo against Andrew Robertson
Mbeumo has two goals and ten key passes. Robertson has one assist, eight key passes and three big chances created, and remains Tottenham’s most reliable route out from the back. Whoever wins that flank decides whether Tottenham can build from their own third or spend the afternoon clearing their lines.
Dominic Solanke against Harry Maguire and Lisandro Martínez
United have conceded eight and have kept no clean sheets at home. Solanke has started every game and has one shot on target. One of those two things has to give.
Kit Note: United and Tottenham
United’s rail runs from the current home shirt and the home shirt carrying the European competition patch — they are in Europe this week, at Atlético Madrid on Tuesday — through the away shirt and the third shirt, to a kids’ home shirt. Tottenham’s rail carries the current home shirt, the away shirt, this season’s goalkeeper shirt and the women’s home shirt. Everything below is live in the shop and priced the same across every size, so browse the rails.
Manchester United — the current home shirt, the home shirt carrying the European patch, the away shirt, the third shirt, and a kids’ home shirt
Swipe to browse 5 Manchester United jerseys
Tottenham Hotspur — the current home shirt, the away shirt, this season’s goalkeeper shirt, and the women’s home shirt
Swipe to browse 4 Tottenham jerseys
