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United 3, Spurs 1 News and Notes: Cavani, Fred, Fernandes, Mourinho

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When Manchester United hosted Tottenham Hotspur back in the fall, the visitors routed, by the score of 6-1. It was an affair that was even uglier than it sounds. Today brought the reverse fixture, and once again the visitors won, this time by the score of 3-1.

It was a heated match, with emotions bubbling over on both sides. The two managers, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Jose Mourinho, had a tiff before the clash, and the post match media opps brought a real flare up that made headline news worldwide. (For part one of the news and notes go here)

Mourinho couldn’t beat his former club the second time, and the picture above is certainly worth thousands of words.

“I don’t know anything anymore,” he said about a match that was defined by controversial officiating.

“In football, you don’t know anything anymore. I watched Fulham-Wolves, I don’t understand anything anymore. Sometimes you get [decisions], sometimes you don’t get, but it’s very difficult to analyse, even as a coach. I don’t know how to comment.”

Edinson Cavani, lately, has been looking like the striker United have really needed for a long time, but he saw a goal disallowed due to a controversial VAR ruling. United and their supporters everywhere thought it was a travesty, and Solskjaer said that the feeling they got shafted was enough to spur them on to victory.

“That kick-started us. [Before the goal] we had played like a team who had played in Europe on a Thursday night [last time out],” Solskjaer said.

“Top reaction, we played some great stuff second half. We felt the injustice and we showed good character to come back. We can’t let those decisions ruin this good season for us.

“The goals we scored were excellent. Edinson shows why he’s a No. 9. Fred even scores, that just shows us how good we were.”

Yes, “even Fred” scored. Right, said Fred in achieving the equalizer. Cavani would later score the game winner.

And when Fred did equalize, you got to love the goal scoring celebration that United employed- it was just Bruno Fernandes pushing Fred back into the ground.

I can really see this catching on and becoming a thing.

The win gave United a real strangehold on second place in the table, and put Spurs in a difficult position for trying to get back into the top four.

Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.