Jose Mourinho returned to Old Trafford and humiliated his former club as Tottenham thrashed Manchester United to record a famous victory.

It meant it was not only the heaviest defeat since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took temporary charge in December 2018, but also the largest United have suffered since Ed Woodward took over as executive vice-chairman in 2013.

The result leaves United 16th in the Premier League, with newly promoted Fulham and West Brom the only clubs with a worse goal difference. Only West Brom have conceded more than their 11 goals.

United were completely outplayed, even before they were reduced to 10 men midway through the first half when Anthony Martial dragged his hand across Erik Lamela’s face in reaction to an elbow in his neck.

In contrast, Tottenham moved up to fifth after emerging from a packed schedule of five games in 11 days in three competitions with a creditable four wins and a draw – their last two games have had five-goal winning margins.

It is also Tottenham’s biggest win at Old Trafford and matches their record home win over United, 6-1 in September 1932.

Terrible day for United

After struggling to bring in new players since the end of last season, the preceding 24 hours had been quite good for United, with deals for veteran striker Edinson Cavani and Brazilian full-back Alex Telles nearing conclusion.

The match could not have got off to a better start either. Davinson Sanchez barged Martial over inside the box within 30 seconds, which provided Bruno Fernandes with the chance to score yet another penalty.

After that it was downhill at a rapid rate for the hosts, who had lost their lead after four minutes, were behind after seven and by the break had conceded four at home in the first half of a league game for the first since 1957, bizarrely also against Spurs.

There was no disguising the abysmal nature of United’s defending, with £80m skipper Harry Maguire one of the chief culprits.

The England centre-back got himself into a real mess trying to deal with what appeared to be a routine ball into the box. Twice he failed to clear, as did Luke Shaw, allowing Ndombele to drive home his first Premier League goal in more than a year.

If the equaliser was bad, what followed was worse.

Maguire conceded a free-kick for a foul on England team-mate Harry Kane 45 yards from goal, but instead of delaying the situation, which Sanchez did when faced with a similar situation at the other end not long afterwards, Maguire backed off. Kane simply slid a pass through the gap and Son’s pace took him clear of Eric Bailly and Shaw.

The third was a result of Kane sliding in to win possession on the edge of the home area after Bailly’s short pass had put Nemanja Matic under pressure. The England skipper then finished after Son had crossed low.

A 14-minute spell either side of the interval brought another goal for Son and a rare goal for Aurier.

By this point, Solskjaer needed to be thankful Old Trafford was largely empty and the only noise was the visiting contingent in their celebrations. The thought of it being full to witness a humiliation like this is not a pretty one.

Jose’s joy

In his two and a half years as United boss, Mourinho only saw his team score four in the first half of a Premier League game at Old Trafford once. They never scored five in a game anywhere, let alone six.

Given the start they had, Mourinho must have been delighted not only with the way his players responded but the manner in which they maintained the pressure on their beleaguered hosts as they capitulated.

The one negative from that first-half was Lamela’s reaction to the incident with Martial.

While it could be argued Lamela did not strike Martial in the face – his elbow went into the Frenchman’s neck to provoke the red card reaction – his response, first holding his face, then falling to the ground when it was evident the contact was minimal did not reflect well on the Argentine.

By the end, Mourinho seemed to be taking little satisfaction from what was unfolding.

He did not even leave his dug-out as Kane converted the penalty after Paul Pogba had needlessly taken down Ben Davies.

At the end, he shook Solskjaer by the hand and gave him a consoling arm around the head. He, more than most, knows the issues facing managers of this mighty club which, since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013, routinely follows significant steps forward by taking massive ones in the other direction.

Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer: “It’s very embarrassing, it hurt all the players. It hurts me as the manager. It’s my worst day ever.

“I’ll hold my hands up, I’m responsible for this. I’ve lost 5-0 with United and we’ve lost 6-1. We’ve lost big results before and always bounced back.

“I promise we’ll do everything we can to turn this around. We know how good they can be but today all our mistakes came almost like Christmas everything at once and if you make too many mistakes against a good team and you’ll be punished.”

Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho: “To win 6-1 against Manchester United at Old Trafford is an honour for all of us, considering the dimension of Manchester United and Old Trafford.

“The pleasure is not the 6-1, the pleasure is the performance and three points which we really need after losing points at home against Newcastle.

“The target, objective is every match we go to win. I told the players in the last couple of days 1000 times a good result at Old Trafford is to win.

“Of course if you draw it’s not a bad result but that’s the kind of mentality we must get. It was a great performance, a great result. We have seven points, so our position in the table is so-so.”

What next?

Manchester United’s next Premier League game is against Newcastle at St James’ Park on 17 October (15:00 BST). Tottenham have a London derby with West Ham at home the following day (16:30 BST).

United break unwanted records – the stats

• Manchester United suffered their joint-heaviest defeat in the Premier League – losing by five goals for the fourth time in the competition, and for the first time since October 2011 against Manchester City.
• Tottenham are the first visiting side to score four first half goals in a league game away at Manchester United since Spurs themselves also did so in November 1957 in a 4-3 win.
• Manchester United have lost their first two home games of a league campaign for just the fifth time in the club’s history, with 1986/87 being the previous occasion they suffered two defeats from two at Old Trafford.
• Spurs boss Jose Mourinho equalled his biggest margin of victory away from home as a Premier League manager, winning by five goals for the first time since his Chelsea side won 5-0 at Swansea City in January 2015.
• Manchester United conceded six goals in a single Premier League game for only the third time – with each coming in October (1996 v Southampton, 2011 v Man City, today v Spurs).
• This was the first Premier League match to see three goals scored in the opening seven minutes since Burnley v Man City in April 2010, and first in which both sides scored in this period since Nottingham Forest v Man Utd in February 1999.
• Spurs boss Jose Mourinho picked up his first away league victory against a team he has previously managed in the Premier League (previously D1 L4).
• Harry Kane has been directly involved in nine goals in the Premier League this season (three goals and six assists) – only Thierry Henry in 2004/05 has had a hand in more in the opening four games of a Premier League campaign (10).
• Spurs’ Son Heung-Min and Harry Kane are the first visiting players since Edin Dzeko in October 2011 to be directly involved in three goals in a a Premier League game at Old Trafford.
• Spurs pair Son Heung-Min and Harry Kane have now combined for 26 Premier League goals; the fifth-most of any duo in the competition’s history, and the most of any current pair.
• Bruno Fernandes has scored all 10 of the penalties he has taken for Manchester United in all competitions – today’s spot kick was the earliest penalty goal in a Premier League match (01:37) since Sergio Aguero against Newcastle in February 2015 (01:12).

Player of the match

Son Heung-MinSon Heung-Min