Another thumping home defeat highlights a weak club that did not know what it wanted in the summer, or lacked the nous to get what it wanted over the line

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Who did not think that, sooner or later, we’d be here again? At the end of last season, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Sir Dave Brailsford and the rest of the Ineos leadership at Manchester United spoke to numerous potential candidates after the club finished eighth in the Premier League with a negative goal-difference. They decided they would, after all, keep Erik ten Hag on as manager. After that decision, who did not foresee a point in the near future when, after another run of poor results, they would be back in the same place as before, just several million pounds poorer having bought another load of Dutch and Dutch-adjacent players?

This is United and that means these problems are always complicated by the memory of Sir Alex Ferguson, who endured some lean years before finally winning the league in his seventh season at the club. The instinct for fans is always to show patience. Nobody wants to be Pete Molyneux, the fan who held up a banner reading “Three years of excuses and it’s still crap … ta-ra Fergie” six months before the decisive 1990 FA Cup triumph that was a springboard to Ferguson’s success.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Lucy Ward, and Jonathan Wilson to discuss all the weekend’s Premier League action

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On the podcast today, the panel breaks down where it went wrong for Manchester United and where it went right for Tottenham at Old Trafford. What is next for Manchester United and Erik ten Hag?

Arteta’s explanation baffles, Palmer exposes Hürzeler’s tactics and how long before a big club pounces for Mbeumo?

Has the curse of the Manchester United contract struck for the second year in succession? After Marcus Rashford agreed a bumper new deal a year ago, he promptly endured a miserable 2023-24 season. This summer, it was Bruno Fernandes’ turn to sign a lucrative extension – one that few could grumble with at the time. Yet the Portuguese, usually a beacon of consistency for United through all their ups and downs, has started the campaign in scruffy and sluggish fashion. He has yet to score this season, has only one assist in six Premier League matches and is increasingly cutting a frustrated figure. That frustration came pouring out in his callow kick at James Maddison, which left United – struggling enough when it was 11 v 11 – down and out with 10 men. Fernandes deserves credit for fronting up after the game but that interview was his most significant contribution of the afternoon. Dominic Booth

Match report: Manchester United 0-3 Tottenham

Match report: Arsenal 4-2 Leicester

Match report: Newcastle 1-1 Manchester City

Match report: Ipswich 2-2 Aston Villa

Match report: Chelsea 4-2 Brighton

Match report: Wolves 1-2 Liverpool

• Club vow to take ‘strongest possible action’
• Statement says it is ‘simply unacceptable’

Tottenham have condemned the “abhorrent homophobic chanting” from sections of the away support during the side’s 3-0 win at Manchester United on Sunday.

Spurs issued a statement on Sunday evening vowing to take “the strongest possible action” over the offensive chants, which were allegedly aimed at United’s former Chelsea midfielder Mason Mount and the Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta.

• Manager “not thinking about” job security
• United 12th in top flight after 3-0 Spurs loss

Erik ten Hag denied any concern that he may be sacked by ­Manchester United after Tottenham’s 3-0 ­humiliation of his side at Old Trafford on Sunday.

United were in disarray from ­Brennan Johnson’s third-minute opener, before Bruno Fernandes was sent off later in the first half. Dejan Kulesevksi and Dominic Solanke also scored for the visitors after the break.

Chastening defeat adds to Old Trafford crisis story but the reality is they were simply undone by a maverick opponent

Well, Manchester United: here’s your Wembley of the North. Several years ahead of schedule, and perhaps not quite as envisaged in the architects’ drawings, but note-perfect in most other respects. A retail temple with a football concession attached; a shrine to wasted money; a ground where the noise barely rises above a disgruntled murmur, and where Tottenham feel pleasantly at home.

Afterwards, Erik ten Hag tried to maintain some semblance of dignity, like a plumber calmly filling out his invoice even as brown water sloshes around his knees. After all, this is not simply a job but an office, and even in moments of decay a certain carriage is demanded. “Is there a fire drill?” the Tottenham fans gleefully asked as Old Trafford slowly emptied. There wasn’t. But the real thing is beginning to feel dangerously close.

Erik Ten Hag said his Manchester United players made 'very bad decisions' in their match against Tottenham, which the visitors won 3-0. 'What I saw in the first 30 minutes, that is below the level that we can expect from a Man United team,' said Ten Hag after the match. Manchester United have scored only one goal at home in the Premier League this term, with pressure mounting on the manager.

• Tottenham humiliate Manchester United as Bruno Fernandes sent off

This is the nadir of Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United tenure. A slipshod shambolic mess that Tottenham exploited gleefully, pinging the ball about and punching through their storied hosts as if in a men-v-kids knockabout.

The manager claims to have a plan and on this showing it seems to be based on waving the opposition past on a figurative red carpet as Spurs ran through United endlessly. Towards the end, at 2-0 down, a 10-man United rallied, as Casemiro raided and Alejandro Garnacho darted in: this merely showed what Ten Hag’s charges might have done if they were not an embarrassment to their famous shirt.

• Updates from 4.30pm (BST) kickoff at Old Trafford
• Get in touch: you can mail Dominic with your thoughts

Some good news for United. Their women’s side have just wrapped up a hard-fought 1-0 win at Everton. Spurs’ women take on Aston Villa soon.

Manchester United are winless in their past three against Tottenham; before that they’d won four on the bounce against them. The one thing we should be guaranteed today is goals. There’s only been one 1-0 in the past 14 meetings between these two sides – and no goalless draws between them for more than a decade.

Time is a precious commodity in football, rarely extended to Manchester United managers languishing in mid-table

There was a shift in the direction of Manchester United’s transfer policy over the summer, putting all their focus on young players. Their oldest new boy was Noussair Mazraoui at the tender age of 26 as Erik ten Hag and Ineos collaborated on a long-term plan. But to make it successful, progress needs to be made on last season’s finish of eighth.

It was a more methodical approach to acquire players with the chance to develop within the club, to make them stronger for years to come. Joshua Zirkzee, Leny Yoro, Matthijs de Ligt and Manuel Ugarte, without a minute of Premier League experience between them, joined Old Trafford’s youthful revolution with plenty of pedigree, but a struggling side is looking for an uplift against Tottenham on Sunday.

Sandro Tonali is ready for a start, Ipswich will be hopeful for visit of Villa and should Fulham be aiming for Europe?

Despite positive results, Newcastle’s performances have disappointed, so Saturday’s 3-1 reverse at Fulham was not a significant shock. Eddie Howe did not disagree with recent suggestions that his team had been deliberately “undercooked” in pre-season training to help reduce the injuries that dogged them in the spring. The only problem is that they currently seem unable to implement the high, hard press that has brought them considerable success under the former Bournemouth manager.

Newcastle v Manchester City, Saturday 12.30pm (all times BST)

Chelsea v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Brentford v West Ham, Saturday 3pm

Everton v Crystal Palace, Saturday 3pm

Arsenal v Leicester, Saturday 3pm

• Manager insists team are still a ‘work in progress’
• Ten Hag admits players could be hungrier for wins

Erik ten Hag has pleaded for patience at Manchester United, saying time is required to “build” Leny Yoro, Joshua Zirkzee and Rasmus Højlund to reach their potential.

Wednesday’s disappointing 1-1 Europa League draw with Twente followed Saturday’s 0-0 at Crystal Palace. United are 11th in the Premier League with seven points from five games after scoring only five times, leaving a goal difference of zero. In Ten Hag’s five transfer windows his squad has had £600m-plus of investment. He was asked whether fans were entitled to want the team to be further along in their development.

Erik ten Hag responded to Christian Eriksen's criticism of Manchester United's mentality in their 1-1 draw with FC Twente in the Europa League. The Manchester United manager said his side failed to 'kill the game' as the English team failed to take advantage of their 1-0 lead, instead conceding an equaliser to an Twente team who played 'the game of their life'

• Ten Hag laments Manchester United’s ‘complacent’ approach in Twente draw

• United concede equaliser after defensive mix-up
• Christian Eriksen suggests Dutch side ‘wanted it more’

Erik ten Hag criticised Manchester United for not “fighting for every yard” unlike Twente, who played “the game of their life” in the 1-1 Europa League draw at Old Trafford on Wednesday night.

United led through Christian Eriksen’s first-half strike and appeared in control at the break. But on 68 minutes Bart van Rooij was able to run from deep inside Twente territory, passing Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes, Lisandro Martínez and Harry Maguire. When Manuel Ugarte tackled the defender, the ball went to Eriksen but the Dane dawdled and Sam Lammers took the ball, dashed forward and equalised.

When Manchester United click as they did here for large periods, their attack features organised chaos and their defence is compact, as their four clean sheets this season show. This last statistic was heading for a fifth until a hapless Christian Eriksen turned from scoring hero to culprit with a dither that allowed Sam Lammers to equalise on 68 minutes.

Chasing victory, Erik ten Hag replaced the restored Marcus Rashford with Rasmus Højlund, Joshua Zirkee with Mason Mount, and Eriksen with Kobbie Mainoo. But this last-dice throw failed despite an added-time scramble that had Harry Maguire heading goalwards so United’s Europa League challenge starts with a point.

• Updates from the 8pm BST kick-off at Old Trafford
• Ten Hag wants more killer instinct from forwards

The players are about to walk into the moist Manchester night. As they do so, here’s a reminder of the teams.

Man Utd (4-2-3-1) Onana; Mazraoui, Maguire, Martinez, Dalot; Ugarte, Eriksen; Amad, Fernandes, Rashford; Zirkzee.
Substitutes: Bayindir, Heaton, De Ligt, Mount, Hojlund, Garnacho, Casemiro, Antony, Evans, Mainoo, Collyer.

• Defender hangs up boots after knee injury at Como
• ‘I have loved fighting for myself, my clubs, my country’

Raphaël Varane has announced his retirement from football aged 31. The former France centre-back made the decision after suffering a serious knee injury at Como in Serie A.

“In my career I have taken on many challenges, rose to occasion after occasion, almost all of it was supposed to be impossible. Reflecting on these moments, it is with immense pride and a feeling of fulfilment that I am announcing my retirement from the game that we all love,” he said on Como’s official X account.

• United prepare for Europa League opener against Twente
• Luke Shaw could return before international break

Erik ten Hag has admitted Manchester United need to “kill in the box” after scoring only five goals so far in the Premier League this season, leaving them with a goal difference of zero.

Last season, United managed 57 goals in the competition, conceding 58. On Saturday, United failed to score again, drawing 0-0 at Crystal Palace despite dominating possession (66% to 34%) and producing 15 shots on goal, six of which were on target.

Politics v football | Remembering Graham Rawle | Paintings at No 11 | Tupperware’s demise | A clever capybara

Having received an email from John Crace inviting me to join him, Marina Hyde and Pippa Crerar for an evening event on Tuesday 3 December, I would just say that, much as I love John Crace, it’s obvious that he is a Spurs supporter, as he has picked the night that Arsenal are hosting Manchester United, so all good Guardian-reading Gooners like me will be attending that event instead.
Helen Jenkins
London

• I once wrote to Graham Rawle (Letters, 18 September) suggesting that he could also do Return of the Lost Consonant, eg “Men behaving baldly”. He replied some months later saying that he had just found my letter in a cardboard ox. This he later illustrated.
Alan Pearson
Durham

They could very easily have beaten Crystal Palace, and yet left more questions piling up about their manager Erik ten Hag

The good news for Erik ten Hag and Manchester United is that it was better than last season. But if his mission this season is to improve a little on every equivalent fixture from the last campaign, this was the easy bit. A 4-0 defeat at Crystal Palace in May was probably the nadir of a season that had many lows. Saturday’s goalless draw probably does represent progress, but the picture is far from clear.

United were by far the better side before half-time and, but for the woodwork and Dean Henderson, would have had a comfortable lead; in the game as a whole, Henderson made seven saves with a combined xG of 1.65. There is an alternative universe not very far removed from this one in which United scored with one of their early chances and went on to win just as comfortably as they had at Southampton last week. But these days, that’s just not how it goes for United.