Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester United: Premier League – live!

71 min Mason Greenwood comes on to replace a very weary Marcus Rashford.

71 min United have battered Spurs in the second half, but the score is 1-1 so they are still ripe for a Mourinho mugging. I don’t think Spurs have done the double over United since 1989-90, so it would be a worthy achievement.

70 min Maguire loses the ball to Kane, pulls him back and is booked.

67 min: What a chance for Pogba! A corner is half cleared, only as far as Shaw on the left. His deep cross picks out Fernandes, who cushions the ball across the six-yard line to Pogba. He tries a backheel towards goal that is blocked by Dier, and then falls over. He should probably have just tried a shot on the turn. It was a brilliant cross from Shaw in the first place, flicked nonchalantly with the outside of the foot. He is playing with stratospheric confidence the noo.

66 min United have dominated the game since half-time, playing with an impressively controlled aggression. I thought they might lose the plot after the way the first half ended.

63 min: Lovely save from Lloris! Bruno Fernandes picks up a loose ball 35 yards out and heads for goal. He gets to within 20 yards and cracks a left-footed shot across goal that is pushed away at full stretch by Lloris. That’s a brilliant stop.

62 min Henderson forces a pass behind Maguire towards Kane, and Henderson charges out of his area to clear. That was good goalkeeping; for a split-second it looked like Kane was through on goal.

61 min A change for Spurs, with Moussa Sissoko replacing Giovani Lo Celso.

60 min: Good save from Henderson! This is a cracking game now. Aurier’s shot was blocked by Lindelof and looped to Son on the other side of the area. He dragged a low shot through the legs of Wan-Bissaka that was kicked away by Henderson. “A de Gea save”, as Gary Neville observes on Sky Sports.

59 min Pogba, who has been superb in the second half, finds Fernandes on the right side of the area with a good pass, but Fernandes’s low cross is behind everyone and Spurs clear.

United sliced the Spurs defence apart with some beautiful short passing just outside the penalty area. Rashford, Fernandes and Fred were all involved. Eventually Fred put Cavani through on goal, and though his shot was saved superbly by Lloris, Fred followed up to score from close range.

55 min A crisp sidefoot from McTominay, 25 yards out, is pushed away by Lloris as he falls to his left. It was a pretty comfortable save, but United are looking more dangerous than they did before the break.

54 min It’s easy to forget, with all the shouting about VAR, that this is an extremely important 35 minutes for Spurs. A win today would put them above Liverpool on goal difference and only four points behind Leicester in third.

53 min Pogba’s dangerous cross from the right is poked just wide of his own goal by Rodon. He had to go for it with Cavani behind him; Cavani was offside but Rodon couldn’t have known that. Shaw’s corner is cleared.

50 min What VAR has exposed is that nobody really knows how to apply the laws of the game, even the referees. Football is drowning in ambiguity.

49 min Shaw’s long cross finds Wan-Bissaka, whose volleyed cross from a tight angle turns into a shot. Lloris, well positioned, pushes it away at the near post.

48 min A slick move from United ends with Pogba playing the ball through to Rashford. He tries to work an angle for a shot but the Spurs defender, Dier I think, does really well to hold him up. At the other end, Kane chips over the bar from 20 yards, and Fred is booked for fouling Aurier in the build up.

46 min Peep peep! Spurs begin the second half. Fred dumps Ndombele on his derriere after nine seconds, so maybe United haven’t cooled off.

I’ve had a quick scan of the emails (thanks one and all). Roughly 60 per cent of you reckon it was a foul, 40 per cent say the game’s gone.

The issue isn’t whether it was a foul, it’s whether it was a ‘clear and obvious error’. The fact there is nothing resembling consensus suggests it probably wasn’t. But the bigger issue is the ruinous fasttracking of VAR. Had they trialled it properly, over a few years, it could have been a great thing. At the moment it’s about as rewarding as a smart speaker that senses when you’re on the cusp of orgasm, and at that precise moment starts playing your mother’s voice.

“It’s a flick in the face,” says Phil Beattie. “I honestly have no idea what you are watching. Son is a good yard behind McTominay – he isn’t ‘holding him off’. He throws his arm backwards and hits Son in the face. It’s a foul, and he’s really lucky not to get a second booking. Gary Neville might be confused but he’s not exactly neutral is he?”

I’m watching the same game as you, Phil. For what it’s worth, Manchester City alumnus Micah Richards and former Spurs midfielder Jamie Redknapp also thought it wasn’t a foul.

Half-time reading

And to think United need somebody to score a goal.

“You wrote, ‘Some of the behaviour in the last few months has been a bit pathetic,’” says Ingo Herzke. “While I fully agree with your sentiment in general and in particular, I don’t think that’s what you intended to write.”

I realised that a couple of minutes later and amended it to ‘minutes’, though on reflection I think I prefer ‘months’.

I’ve just checked and Kane was onside in the build-up to Son’s goal, so there’s no controversy there.

Another half dominated by VAR. Edinson Cavani had a goal controversially disallowed for a foul on Son, who then gave Spurs the lead a few minutes later.

45+2 min Fernandes’s cross just evades Cavani at the far post.

45 min Martin Convery writes to say that Kane was offside in the build up to Son’s goal. I haven’t seen a replay but that would make an even greater mockery of this first half. Now Fernandes is saying Hojbjerg has elbowed him. Some of the behaviour in the last few minutes has been a bit pathetic, but it all stems from that disallowed goal.

44 min Rashford thinks he has won a corner but then finds out he has been penalised for a challenge on Son. United need half-time to cool off.

41 min: It’s kicking off! Cavani has been booked. He pushed Rodon over, then went back for more, at which point the players on both sides converged. United are in high dudgeon; even Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has a murderous look on his face.

Ndombele fired a pass into Kane on the edge of the D. He half-volleyed a first-time pass around the corner to release Lucas Moura, with Lindelof getting in a tangle as he tried to intercept. Moura could have shot but instead slid the ball across the penalty area to Son, who beat Henderson from close range.

And now Son has given Spurs the lead!

39 min Kane wriggles away from Wan-Bissaka on the left of the area and drags a low cross that beats everyone in the middle.

United are fuming, and you can understand why – I think that was a 50/50 call rather than a clear and obvious error. The only upside for United is that McTominay didn’t receive a second yellow card.

McTominay flicked his hand out, just to hold Son off, but he caught him in the face.

Chris Kavanagh is going to the monitor. Manchester United could lose a goal and a man here.

McTominay definitely caught Son, though it was a hand-off more than anything. The goal was excellent: an imaginative short pass from Pogba to Cavani, who made a great run behind Dier and swept the ball past Lloris.

Cavani scores, but there’s a big but: Son is down holding his face after a challenge from McTominay, who has already been booked, in the build up.

33 min “I’m pretty sure we’ve entered a parallel universe,” says Stephen Carr, “where its Mourinho’s Utd v Mourinho’s Spurs.”

32 min Lo Celso sweeps Rashford’s feet from under him, right on the edge of the area, but the referee doesn’t deem it a foul. That doesn’t impress Rashford much.

31 min At this stage of the return game, Spurs were 2-1 up and Anthony Martial had been sent off.

29 min United’s passing and movement has been really sluggish. They look like a team who need the cattle prod of going behind.

28 min Pogba and Rashford have swapped again, so Pogba is back on the left.

23 min Bruno Fernandes tries to release Rashford with a long angled pass. Aurier does well to get across and intercept. It hasn’t been the greatest game so far, I won’t lie to you.