No love lost as Manchester United and Tottenham women square off again | OneFootball

Manchester United against Tottenham can never be labelled a derby. The 200-plus miles between their home grounds will see to that. Watch their six-goal thriller in the Women’s Super League last weekend, though, and it had all the hallmarks of a classic derby: some needle, some squaring up to one another and, amid a high-intensity contest, a subtle undertone of increasingly passionate dislike. Luckily for any fans who enjoy seeing the odd late challenge or feisty exchange, the teams meet again a week on from that engrossing 3-3 draw, in Sunday’s League Cup quarter-finals.

It appears to have been brewing long before these sides played out one of the most dramatic games in the WSL era, United coming from 3-0 down to claim a late draw on a day when they hit the crossbar four times. It seems to stem from before Martin Ho, the former United assistant manager, was appointed as Tottenham’s head coach last summer, and before United coasted to a 4-0 win over Spurs in the 2024 Women’s FA Cup final. Perhaps we need to cast our minds back to 12 February 2023.

Last weekend there was clearly no love lost between Ella Toone and Eveliina Summanen, the tension between the pair palpable in the 53rd minute in particular as Summanen tried to put an arm around the United midfielder and Toone batted her arm away. Later in the game, Melvine Malard squared up to the Finland international. Why? In 2023, Toone and Summanen clashed off the ball, on the floor, and Toone was sent off, with Summanen clutching her face in agony, but Toone’s red card was rescinded and the Tottenham player served a two-match ban for “successful deception” of the officials. Sections of both clubs’ fans boo the other team’s player, and Toone clearly enjoys scoring against Tottenham; the in-form Lioness has four goals and two assists in her past 10 games against them.

Perhaps there is also a feeling of smugness at Tottenham that they persuaded United’s analyst Lawrence Shamieh to swap clubs, or vice versa with United delighted to have signed the Norway winger Celin Bizet from Spurs. Maybe it is principally because they are a point apart in a competitive top half of the table. And then there are the managers, formerly working together at United and now in opposite dugouts, seemingly determined to eclipse one another, even if not saying so publicly.

In their press conferences on Friday, Marc Skinner and Ho tried to play down any suggestion of rivalry, especially Skinner, who said: “I’ve heard people are trying to make it a growing rivalry and I think it’s because we’ve worked together. The reality is, I think that Martin is doing a very good job there. Their team are in a good space.

“People can call it a rivalry but for me it’s about respect. We respect each other and the styles. Congratulations to him on doing the job he’s doing. It’s a tough league so to do that, it’s very good from him and I’m sure he will be happy.”

Ho, who managed SK Brann in Norway in between being at United and joining Tottenham, said: “Probably people put more edge on it because I’ve been at the club and we’ve worked together before. But what we’re doing at Tottenham here is unique to us. How we play, how we organise, the structure we use, it’s not borrowed, it’s unique. It’s designed and it’s coached. So it’s unique to myself and to the club.

“I think rivalry in football is good, whether that is club-to-club, fans-to-fans. I think it is important that we build that within the sport and within the women’s game, because I think it’ll only benefit us in the long run and make more of a talking point. I think, if we’re talking rivalry, that’s with every club, not just with me or Manchester United. It’s not about me or Marc, it’s about Manchester United and Tottenham competing. It’s about two sets of players when they go on to the pitch.”

Whoever wins on Sunday will face a semi-final trip to Crystal Palace or Arsenal in January, but more than that, they will take huge confidence into the second half of the campaign. And the bragging rights of what we must never call a derby.

Header image: [Photograph: Molly Darlington/WSL/WSL Football/Getty Images]