Manchester United drop points again: 10-man Tottenham grab stoppage-time 1-1 draw and pile pressure on Michael Carrick

Manchester United suffered another damaging setback at Old Trafford on Saturday, letting a 1-0 lead slip in stoppage time to draw 1-1 with a Tottenham side that played most of the match with ten men. Dominic Solanke's late strike deepened a growing crisis around Michael Carrick, whose team has collected just six points from its opening six Premier League games.

• Manchester United have won only one of their six Premier League matches this season and are now winless in four league games.
• United failed to beat 10-man opposition at Old Trafford for the second home game in a row after a similar slip against Manchester City last month.
• Dominic Solanke outmuscled Lisandro Martínez and beat goalkeeper Senne Lammens with a deft finish in added time.
• United are closer to the relegation zone than the Champions League places in terms of points.

Stoppage time haunts Manchester United once again

For the second consecutive home league game, United could not hold onto a lead against a side reduced to ten men. Tottenham looked blunt in attack until Rodrigo Bentancur's headfirst charge at Luke Shaw earned him a red card, but the visitors still found a way back in the dying moments when Solanke latched onto a breakaway and guided the ball inside the far corner.

Lisandro Martínez was beaten far too easily in the duel with the striker, while Lammens failed to read the trajectory of a shot that crept in next to the post. The reaction of the United players at full time said everything about a team that is starting to lose its way.

Carrick's numbers make grim reading at Old Trafford

The figures behind United's start to the season are sobering. The club has not collected this few points from its first six league matches since the 1986-87 campaign, when Sir Alex Ferguson's side managed just four. United have failed to win five of their six Premier League games, drawing three and losing two.

Until recently Carrick's league record was remarkably solid, with only two defeats in his previous time in charge. That tally has now been matched in the space of just six games this season, and the last two draws have come against teams who began the day at the bottom of the table.

Tough run of fixtures offers no easy escape route

The schedule does not get any kinder. United travel across the Pennines to face old rivals Leeds United at Elland Road on Sunday 18 October, never a comfortable assignment. Either side of that fixture are demanding Champions League away trips to Atlético Madrid and Como.

Club officials have voiced support for Carrick in recent weeks, but United's recent history shows how quickly things can unravel. Erik ten Hag was dismissed on 27 October after a run of two wins in nine matches, while Ruben Amorim's position collapsed after a shock EFL Cup exit to Grimsby and a 3-1 defeat at Brentford in late September. This start to the campaign is beginning to follow a familiar pattern.

Carrick takes responsibility but wants more from his side

I'm not happy with the amount of points we've got so far, for sure. I'm not hiding, there's no hiding from that. We need to put things in a positive direction quite quickly, that's pretty plain.

The manager pointed to costly moments in recent weeks: the defending for Solanke's goal, the lack of pressure that allowed Everton to smash in another stoppage-time equaliser, and the preventable Martínez own goal that nearly handed Fulham victory just before the international break. For Carrick, the solution lies in being more streetwise and stronger when seeing out matches.

He stood firmly behind his players, insisting he does not feel let down by individual mistakes. According to the manager, the squad holds its hands up when things go wrong and nobody walked away from the stadium as though everything was fine. Still, each setback chips away at the belief that this is a genuinely good team.

Fan frustration grows as boos ring out at full time

Boos greeted the end of both halves at Old Trafford, and during the opening period forward Matheus Cunha was seen gesturing toward the crowd. The Brazilian, one of several players struggling to reproduce the form he showed in the second half of last season, looked unhappy, although it was unclear whether he was responding to criticism or trying to lift the atmosphere.

Carrick knows that environment better than most because his family are season ticket holders at Old Trafford. He admitted that watching United struggle hurts deeply, and that he sometimes cares too much, but stressed that it all comes from a genuine love for the club.

Running stats reopen the debate over United's intensity

The familiar debate about work rate surfaced again after the final whistle. Tottenham covered five kilometres more than United even though they played for nearly an hour with ten men. Jamie Redknapp, the former Spurs captain and Sky Sports pundit, believes that gap tells the real story.

The stats don't lie when every time the other team runs more than you. Tottenham ran 5km more than Man United. If you outrun your opposing number, you will win games. It is that physical battle they are losing though.

Redknapp was careful to point out that he is not accusing the players of lacking effort. The issue, he argued, is that United are consistently losing the physical contest, and running alone has proved to be of little benefit without a clear purpose behind it.