London, April 12: A season that provided the flickers of a title challenge is now turning into the worst of Jose Mourinho’s managerial career.
Of all the managers to inflict Tottenham’s 10th loss of the Premier League season, it was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who replaced Mourinho at Manchester United.
Maybe that explains why Mourinho was so irritated with Solskjaer after a 3-1 home loss to United saw Tottenham fall six points from fourth place. Mourinho expressed disappointment at Solskjaer’s criticism of Son Heung-min in an interview.
Edinson Cavani’s diving header put second-place United 2-1 in front. Son broked the deadlock in the 40th minute.
Never before in his career has Mourinho lost as many as 10 league matches in a single season.
United’s comeback began in the 57th when Fred teed up Cavani for a shot that was parried by Hugo Lloris and the Brazilian followed up with his first Premier League goal since 2018.
Lloris was beaten again in the 79th when the Portugal midfielder’s nutmeg helped to set up Mason Greenwood for a cross that Cavani got on the end of with a header.
And Greenwood put further gloss on the win in the sixth minute of stoppage time by scoring after Pogba and Cavani combined to set up the English forward for a shot that Lloris got a touch to but couldn’t keep out.
Mourinho had enjoyed a 6-1 win at United in October and Tottenham had been top of the standings in December. But Tottenham has fallen to seventh place, while Solskjaer is still on course to deliver the team’s highest finish since being runners-up three years ago under Mourinho.
The Premier League trophy seems out of reach for United with Manchester City 11 points ahead. While United is still in contention for the Europa League, Mourinho has a League Cup final meeting with Manchester City in two weeks.
Jesse Lingard took his goal tally to eight in nine appearances since joining West Ham on loan from Manchester United. The 3-2 win over Leicester City allowed West Ham to dislodge Chelsea and move back into fourth place.
Lingard volleyed in the opener and tapped in a second before halftime after being set up by Jarrod Bowen, who added the third three minutes into the second half. Kelechi Iheanacho scored twice for Leicester but the third-place team couldn’t produce an equalizer.
Alexandre Lacazette scored twice either side of Gabriel Martinelli’s tap-in as Arsenal nudged last-place Sheffield United closer to relegation with a 3-0 victory. A first clean sheet in 14 matches in all competitions moved Mikel Arteta’s team up to ninth. (AP)
