Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho leaves the field at the end of the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England, Monday, Aug. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)
MANCHESTER, England — Even his heaviest home loss wasn’t enough to defeat Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho’s fighting spirit on Monday.
After losing 3-0 to Tottenham in the Premier League at Old Trafford, the Portuguese defiantly held up three fingers at his news conference and asked: “Do you know what this means? 3-0. That also means three Premiership (titles) and I won more Premiership alone than the other 19 managers together. Three for me and two for them.”
Mourinho then left his seat repeating “respect, respect, respect” as he walked out of the news conference.
But the scale of the defeat was shown by the fact that in his four previous Premier League visits to Old Trafford, Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino had never seen his team score.
He has now — three times — as Tottenham humiliated United to stay perfect after three rounds.
Harry Kane and Lucas Moura struck twice in a three-minute span early in the second half. Moura grabbed a second with six minutes left.
Raising media speculation over his future, Mourinho cut a lonely figure as he took to the field at the end to shake hands with his players and then went out of his way to applaud the home fans who had remained inside Old Trafford, holding up a scarf thrown to him by a supporter.
Tottenham fans had chanted “You’re getting sacked (fired) in the morning.”
This is just the second season in Premier League history that United has lost more than one of its opening three matches. After beating Leicester in its opener, United lost to Brighton 3-2 and now has three points after three rounds.
United had beaten Spurs 1-0, 1-0, 1-0 and 3-0 in their last four league meetings at Old Trafford.
As well as Mourinho, the spotlight was on goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who captained Tottenham days after being charged with drunken driving.
The France captain apologized “wholeheartedly” for his actions on Friday and started against United, with Mousa Dembele and Danny Rose coming into the side.
Nemanja Matic was one of six United alterations on Monday, with MUTV confirming the defensive midfielder would form part of a back three.
Minutes before kickoff Tottenham announced substitute Erik Lamela had been injured in the warmup and would be replaced by 21-year-old midfielder Luke Amos on the bench.
When the game got underway, the teams fought out an entertaining but goalless first half.
Romelu Lukaku had numerous chances to give United what at the time would have been a deserved lead, including dragging across the face of an open goal after rounding Lloris.
Shortly after halftime, Spurs punished some feeble defending.
Kane all too easily got free at a corner and directed a super header into the top right-hand corner.
After scoring his first goal at Old Trafford, Kane told Sky Sports: “That’s massive, to come here and win the way we did is a big statement … We wanted to start the season well and three wins out of three is a great start.”
Kane’s 50th-minute opener was soon added to as Christian Eriksen ghosted behind to send in a cross directed home by Moura.
Moura added his second of the evening in the 84th, superbly beating Chris Smalling and firing into the bottom corner after a swift break to seal a 3-0 win.
Despite the result, Mourinho said “by strategy we didn’t lose, tactically we didn’t lose, but we lost the game.”
He praised United fans for their attitude at the end of the game, saying “all our fans don’t read papers, all our fans don’t watch television, all our fans are more intelligent than that and answered in an amazing way.”
Mourinho added: “I don’t think it’s normal for a team to lose at home and (the fans) react like that.”