Man United 3-0 Spurs: Initial reaction

I missed the first half of that. Two Manchester United fans have told me we played well in the first half. And the pundits said we played well in the first half. At least I didn't get my expectations up unnecessarily then.

Well nobody ever took any points off Manchester United by just playing well in the first half and it's scant consolation for a second-half performance that had the words "mid table at best" tattoed all over it in large "I told you so" letters.

Let's get one thing straight. Manchester United are better than us. It doesn't take 22 years without a win at Old Trafford to figure that out. But based on our showing in the last 45 minutes, we still look too similar to the side that won only three of our final 12 games last term.

We appeared jaded and impotent going forward. Early on, we kept possession well and we knocked the ball around confidently but we were bereft of ideas and never looked a threat to a largely inexperienced Man United defence.

Our centre backs and midfielders are still too happy to pump the ball up to nobody in particular, giving possession away too cheaply in the process. Then, when we did push into the final third, the ball was hit inaccurately at goal rather than dropped into the box to test a wobbly David De Gea in the United net.

There have been stories of Defoe looking sharper, stronger and more determined but he still didn't look the intelligent team player we are craving and Rafa Van Der Vaart still looks unfit.

All in all, we're left wondering exactly what we did with our pre-season other than counter act headline after headline of inaccurate Luka Modric speculation.

We may be missing a number of first-team players but a strong line-up still refused to press United on the ball and gave them enough time to appear the finished article.

We're not foreseeing doom and disaster. We're just making our disappointment clear.

After the Everton game was cancelled, we certainly didn't expect to start the campaign with a win. But lesser teams than us have beaten the Red Devils at Old Trafford in the past 22 years and it's fair to think that with this current Spurs team we can at least give them a game that lasts longer than the first half.