MU beats Spurs for first win of season

Manchester United's Nani (bottom) celebrates with teammates after scoring during their English Premier League soccer match against Tottenham Hotspur in Manchester on Sunday. Reuters

The 20-year-old Portuguese forward scored his first goal for United since his 8 million pounds ($16.02 million) transfer from Sporting Lisbon with an unstoppable 25m shot that took the faintest deflection off Carlos Tevez after 68 minutes.

The win lifted United from second bottom in the table to 10th after its poor start of two draws and a defeat in its previous three league matches.

United manager Alex Ferguson was delighted with the result and said Spurs' strong claims for a second half penalty, when Wes Brown appeared to handle in the area, were unfounded.

"It was a narrow win, touch and go, nothing between the sides ... I knew it was going to be a war of attrition in the second half. They dug in, caused us a bit of bother but the goal was a wonder hit, although I think Tevez's touch sealed it," he told Sky Sports.

"I think it was Tevez's goal ... he's the centre-forward. But I don't think it was a penalty even though Spurs claimed so strongly. The ball hit him in the chest."

The win lifted United on to five points from four matches, five points behind leader Chelsea and two behind the other probable title hopefuls Liverpool and Arsenal.

Chelsea beat Portsmouth 1-0 on Saturday to go top ahead of Manchester City, who lost top spot after losing 1-0 at Arsenal. Liverpool also won on Saturday, beating Sunderland 2-0.

Tottenham, who harbour hopes of reaching the Champions League this season after two successive fifth place finishes, was beaten for the third time in four starts and slipped to 17th.

The defeat capped a traumatic week for Spurs, whose boss Martin Jol looked like losing his job at one stage.

On Sunday, they had a shot cleared off the line and went close with shots from Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane.

Jol felt they were also denied a penalty after 65 minutes.

"I felt very comfortable and I thought we were going to get a penalty kick. (Wes Brown) used everything like a keeper to keep the ball out of the net and he's not a keeper he's a defender, so it should have been a penalty kick.

"I felt if we had got a penalty then we could have come away with a win."

He said that even though Spurs lost he did not feel under pressure. Last week it looked as if the Spurs board were about to replace him with Sevilla boss Juande Ramos.

"I am not under pressure. The chairman has said he is backing me so for me there is no problem," he said.

In Sunday's earlier match Newcastle United led twice but was eventually held to a 2-2 draw at Middlesbrough in a lively Tyne-Tees derby in which Mark Viduka scored his first goal for Newcastle against his former club.

Agencies

(China Daily 08/28/2007 page23)