Tottenham 3-0 Man Utd: Spurs Keep Faint Title Hopes Alive With Three Goals in Less Than Six Minutes

​Tottenham Hotspur kept their faint Premier League title hopes alive with a big 3-0 win over Manchester United at White Hart Lane. Goals from Dele Alli, Toby Alderweireld and Erik Lamela came in less than six second half minutes and killed the game there and then.

For United, it was a cruel reminder of a similar collapse when they faced Arsenal in north London earlier this season and the result leaves their top four hopes in tatters.

Kick-off was delayed by half an hour after the United team bus was stuck in traffic. It was far from ideal preparation for the away side but it was they who actually started the game stronger of the two teams, dominating possession and pressing their opponents high up the field.

It was a game that pitted the Premier League's best two defences against each other. As such, clear opportunities for either side to break the deadlock were unsurprisingly few and far between until shortly before the half hour mark when a combination of two excellent challenges from Timothy Fosu-Mensah and a bad miss from Lamela denied Spurs a first goal.

Mauricio Pochettino's team started the second half on the front foot and David de Gea had to be smart to beat away a speculative effort from Christian Eriksen soon after the restart.

At the hour mark a neat move from a throw-in presented Jesse Lingard with sight of goal, but the United man couldn't direct his shot on target. Anthony Martial squeezed between two Spurs defenders a few moments later and saw his fierce attempt beaten clear by Hugo Lloris.

The way that Spurs put the game to bed in the space of just a few minutes won't have pleased Louis van Gaal, who watched his team suddenly crumble midway through the second half.

A scrappy breakdown eventually saw the ball played out wide to Eriksen, whose first time ball found Alli waiting to finish in the penalty area. Alderweireld doubled the lead when he rose above a sluggish Marcos Rojo at a set-piece, while it was three when Lamela made up for his earlier miss with a composed first time finish.

Only a top class save from De Gea stopped Harry Kane from making it four shortly afterwards, while a further save from the Spaniard kept Mousa Dembele at bay in stoppage time.

Tottenham: Lloris, Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose, Dier, Dembele, Lamela (Chadli - 87'), Alli (Mason 90+3'), Eriksen, Kane (Son - 89')

Manchester United: De Gea, Fosu-Mensah (Darmian - 68'), Smalling, Blind, Rojo, Schneiderlin, Carrick, Mata (Memphis - 76'), Lingard, Martial, Rashford (Young - 45')