Sheffield United vs Tottenham result: Blades cut Spurs to shreds to reignite European hopes

It would not be Jose Mourinho without a whiff of controversy. This may have been a rare occasion when he was not the cause of it but while defeat at Bramall Lane came in contentious fashion, there are other themes in the Portuguese’s career of diminishing returns. Underachievement is starting to feel familiar.

Exit an insipid, underachieving Tottenham Hotspur, surely, from the battle for the Champions League places. They were leapfrogged by their conquerors Sheffield United, whose first win of the summer was hard-earned, fully deserved and tinged by VAR and a rule that means the punishment exceeds the crime in the cases of accidental handball in the build-up to goals.

Seven points off sixth, having dropped five in three games of summer football, Spurs are stuttering their way into mid-table. Injury-hit, on their worst run of the season, United mustered a victory forged in character and capped by goals that stemmed from clever use of the flanks. Sander Berge’s first United strike, Lys Mousset’s first of 2020 and Oli McBurnie’s tap-in should serve as reminders of how wonderfully Chris Wilder’s serial underdogs have done. The wider world may recall the first of Harry Kane’s three disallowed goals for longer.

It came a minute after Berge struck. Kane made the finish look simple, beating Chris Basham for skill and Dean Henderson with his shot. That was not why it was disallowed. But Lucas Moura, who had made a driving run, seemed to shoulder, or upper arm, the ball into Kane’s path.

Chalking the goal off felt doubly farcical. There was no attempt to handle from the tumbling Moura and the reason he was going to ground, it appeared, was because he was fouled. Officially, an advantage had been played; yet that advantage was negated when it was ruled Moura had handled. The VAR was England’s premier referee Michael Oliver and, technically, he applied the laws.

Mourinho was warned for his dissent to the officials at Bramall Lane who, had they need a riposte, could have pointed out that Spurs seemed to benefit from VAR when West Ham’s Tomas Soucek had a goal disallowed last week; the Portuguese did not reflect on his good fortune then.

Before kick-off, United had seemed the luckless ones. Their injuries were such that they could only name seven substitutes; Wilder spotted the former United midfielder Michael Brown at Bramall Lane on punditry duty and asked him if he would like to be on the bench. Brown was prolific for the Blades in 2002-03. Berge, a younger goalscoring midfielder, opened his account after his club record move in January. He, and Wilder, turned adversity into an opportunity.

The £22million man Berge owed his place to the injury John Lundstram sustained against Arsenal. He took his chance, in more ways than one, accepting Basham’s low pass and providing a precise finish.

But the damning element of what followed was that Spurs’ feelings of injustice were not channelled into a response. Kane had two more goals chalked off, though there could be no disputing either decision, but otherwise they created too little until their top scorer finished Heung-Min Son’s cross in the 89th minute.

United had the more incision. They almost added to their lead when Hugo Lloris fumbled Berge’s cross and David McGoldrick shot narrowly wide. He gets ever closer to completing the league season without scoring. His replacement struck within six minutes and with an ease McGoldrick must envy. Mousset could sidefoot into an empty net after slick build-up involving Ben Osborn, a summer signing starting a first league game in the next summer, and Enda Stevens. McBurnie’s goal was scarcely any harder with Berge laying it on a plate for him and leaving Tottenham marooned in ninth.