Spurs wait over as Clint Dempsey seals win

Manchester Utd 2 Tottenham Hotspur 3

Clint Dempsey secured Tottenham's first league victory at Old Trafford since December 1989 as Manchester United suffered their second defeat of the campaign in a five-goal epic.

Having led 2-0 at half-time, Spurs appeared to be coasting to the points until three goals in three minutes - the last coming from American forward Dempsey - ensured a late onslaught by Sir Alex Ferguson's team. But despite carving out a host of chances and hitting the woodwork twice, United, who ended the game with centre-half Jonny Evans limping heavily with a thigh problem, lost out.

Considering that Andre Villas-Boas had woken to headlines claiming that his Tottenham players were on the brink of revolt due to his "tiring" training regime and supposedly negative tactics, a trip to Old Trafford was hardly likely to offer comfort.

A 3-1 defeat at this stadium last September was the first chapter in a catalogue of bad days for the Portuguese coach during his brief reign as Chelsea manager and that painful memory, combined with Tottenham's 23-year winless league run at United, hinted at another difficult day for Villas-Boas. But having gone unbeaten since an opening day defeat at Newcastle, Spurs are growing in confidence under the former Porto coach and their bold start against Ferguson's team emphasised the new belief at White Hart Lane.

With injury depriving the home side of captain Nemanja Vidic, the selection of veterans Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes together in midfield also highlighted a glaring area of weakness in the red shirts.

Iconic figures that they are, Giggs and Scholes are no longer the dominating forces they were a decade ago and against the pace, power and relative youth of Bale and Moussa Dembele, Ferguson's selection was an accident waiting to happen. In fairness, neither was culpable for Vertonghen's second-minute opener, but the Belgian full-back was somehow given a free run through the centre of the pitch before scoring.

Vertonghen, a rangy a left-back signed from Ajax in the summer, brushed past Nani and Rio Ferdinand during his 40-yard run before seeing his shot deflected into the net off the sprawling body of Evans. It was a stunning goal by Vertonghen, but an awful one for United to concede. Their protection of the back four was simply non-existent.

United, with a fit-again Wayne Rooney named on the substitutes' bench, were flat and lacking in imagination. Spurs were simply too strong for United in the middle of the pitch and Dembele, a summer-long target for United prior to his move to Spurs from Fulham, showed why Ferguson should have lavished some of Old Trafford's money on the Belgian.

It was Dembele's pass to Bale, two yards from the halfway line, which led to the Welsh midfielder scoring Tottenham's second. Bale burst into the wide-open spaces in front of him and brutally exposed Ferdinand's lack of pace by gliding past the former England captain before guiding a right-foot shot past goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard.

With his team being overrun, Ferguson withdrew Giggs at the interval and replaced him with Rooney, whose introduction injected energy and purpose into United.

The added threat posed by the England forward also forced Spurs to check their cavalier attacking, but once Nani pulled one back for United, with a deft near-post finish from Rooney's 51st minute cross, the game opened up dramatically.

Within 60 seconds, Spurs responded to Nani's strike by regaining their two-goal lead through Dempsey following another example of Ferdinand's vulnerability when defending against pace.

The United defender should have shepherded Jermain Defoe down the line, but the striker outfoxed Ferdinand and laid off to Bale, whose strike was only palmed away by Lindegaard into the path of Dempsey, who buried the rebound from six yards.

But just as Dempsey had taken the wind out of United's sails, Kagawa did the same for Spurs by scoring United's second within a minute. The Japanese midfielder sent a left-foot shot in off the far post after escaping Kyle Walker to latch onto Robin van Persie's pass in Spurs penalty area.

Kagawa was denied another strike on goal by a robust Walker tackle before Rooney rattled Brad Friedel's right-hand post with a 20-yard free-kick.

Van Persie then wasted a glorious chance to equalise on 69 minutes when he scuffed wide from close range after being free by Michael Carrick. Nani then forced an important save from Friedel with a powerful right-foot strike, as did Scholes.

As the clock ticked down, Carrick headed against the Spurs bar, but Villas-Boas's team managed to hold on.