Under-fire Tottenham happy to heap more misery on Manchester United to ease pressure on Ange Postecoglou

James Maddison was happy to respond in the right way to a “big-profile name” after his 13th-minute goal gave Tottenham a 1-0 victory over Manchester United.

The two teams started the day closer to the Premier League relegation zone than the top six and it was Spurs who gained three points following a 10th goal of the campaign by the fit-again Maddison.

Maddison celebrated with a shush to the camera after midweek criticism from ex-Man United captain Roy Keane, who questioned how much of a difference the Tottenham playmaker being available would make to Ange Postecoglou.

“Just a little bit of outside noise wasn’t there, this week? Listen, people have their opinions, but I wanted to do my talking on the pitch today, so I hope there’s a certain few that enjoyed me being the match-winner,” Maddison told Sky Sports.

Postecoglou had not been aware of Maddison’s celebration but was not surprised that the 28-year-old threw a shot back at Keane.

“Everybody has mentioned his celebration but I didn’t see it so I can’t comment on it, but it doesn’t surprise me that Madders didn’t accept what was being said about him and threw a shot back over the bow,” Postecoglou said.

This first home league win for Tottenham since November 3 moved them up to 12th and eased the growing scrutiny on their manager after they exited the League and FA Cups in the space of 72 hours earlier this month.

Spurs were without 11 players for their cup defeat at Aston Villa but the roles were reversed for this fixture with the hosts boosted by the return of Guglielmo Vicario and Maddison, while United lost Manuel Ugarte, Kobbie Mainoo and Amad Diallo to injury over the weekend and were without 12 in total.

When Postecoglou was asked if he had sympathy for Ruben Amorim’s current injury crisis, the Australian joked: “If I check my office, I don’t have any sympathy cards from other managers, so that hasn’t happened!

“I could see Ruben there, players out of position, kids on the bench. Well, welcome to my world, but that’s for one game. Now do that for two months.

“I thought Man United were good today, considering all that and we had our days when we were good, we beat Liverpool in this spell. Do that for two months.”

Amorim acknowledged: “I think the big difference was the goal they scored. We didn’t score.

“I have a lot of problems. My job is so hard but I’m here to continue my job to the next week with my beliefs. I will try to do it, I will try to win again.

“Sometimes in moments, everything goes wrong but we have to face the challenge and to focus on the next game. That’s all.”