In a Jeremy Kyle-style showdown, Spurs triumph in a drama of dysfunction

Before kickoff, there was a thrilling scene outside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium when the Levy Out supporters' march came to a halt, and a single protester stationed himself in its route, holding up a Levy In sign in Tiananmen Square style, a lone display of human will in the path of history.

The sign was removed from him. But wait! He took out another one. A brief scuffle erupted. The police stepped in. The marchers cheered, then filed into their high-priced seats inside this amazing mega-drome, a testament to Levy's commercial acumen, to watch their team face Manchester United, the great sickly zombified titan of English football.

That emotion outside the stadium was visceral and totally real. It was inside where the traveling United fans chanted, as they often do, for the Glazers to leave, which is also a fantastic notion.

In the buildup, this game was cast as a kind of Jeremy Kyle Clásico, football as a daytime TV-style theatre of dysfunction, grudges and grievances on show, familial poison to be let. You half expected to see gum-chewing bouncers at the edge of the pitch, cutaway reaction shots to stunned members of the crowd, a scoundrel nephew swaggering on stage halfway through.

In the end, the reactions of both groups of supporters struck a perfectly appropriate tone of resistance and dissent. These two football clubs frequently ask the same question these days. What does this sport imply today? Who owns this thing? What use does its energy serve? What are these protests about, exactly? Transfer decisions. Poor governance. Modern life. The hypercapitalism of spectator sports. A world in which ardent followers of major cultural institutions are forced to pay exorbitant fees to serve as monetized passion, the commodified backdrop to a mediocre game within a stunning multi-purpose piece of real estate. The atmosphere off the pitch was just as important as the activity on it.

Tottenham ended up winning 1-0 in a breezy, enjoyable, medium-grade game that appeared for long stretches to be a lower-mid-table arm wrestle. It was a good game for Ange Postecoglou, who had several players returning and found the ideal opponents in United. This visiting club makes him look thoroughly functioning, happy, stable, and with an altogether reasonable playing squad.

One of the weird things about Tottenham's season is the notion that individual players are performing exceptionally well even while the club struggles. Djed Spence played another excellent, wholehearted game. Dejan Kulusevski had another outstanding performance. Lucas Bergvall is a superb midfielder. It was delightful to watch Bergvall repeatedly hop about Casemiro in central midfield, a scene of mismatched grace akin to one of those Strictly Come Dancing combinations between a whirling professional and a 25-stone middle-aged broadcaster.

United started with a very compact team, a flat defensive five with Casemiro chugging around carefully right in front in big black woolly gloves, like a father at the swings. They struggled to deal with James Maddison from the beginning. The Amorim structure is most straightforward to learn when it has components to press up against. Maddison's locating those strange small half-spaces poses a challenge for players learning this on the go.

And Maddison scored the game's only goal after 13 minutes. What is required to score against Manchester United? A cross from the right. Sloppy marking. A deflection. A shot that was only partially saved. Nobody ran back save Maddison, who finished cleanly. There was no need for the devil, imaginative play, or anything unexpected. It was like leaning on an already open door.

United had several chances over the following 80 minutes or so. But most of the time, they resembled a team learning to play from a booklet, which is precisely what they are. Has anyone ever thrown away half a season trying to establish patterns of play? It assumes an unwavering confidence that there is only one way to do this, that 3-4-3 is the ultimate goal. Are wing-backs really important? It's like throwing a home party where you're so focused on getting the lasagna ready that you forget to dance, have fun, buy any alcohol, or say Happy New Year.

However, the real issue for United is the squad, not just its poverty, but also its expense, contract length, and simple incompetence in building it. Rasmus Højlund spent energy near the action, like a photographer covering other men playing football. Joshua Zirkzee played close to him up front, rumbling about and eager to help, like a friendly scaffolding tower.

Even the bench here was impressive, like an A-level geography excursion waiting for the train to Lyme Regis, with a row of eager haircuts on top form. The worst aspect is that nothing is shocking or startling about this, just a feeling that they are fortunate. Ipswich, Leicester, and Southampton are significantly behind the rest of the field.

Spurs had at least some hope here. For the rest of us, optimism lies in the energy outside of the game, the opposition to the world that has taken both of these teams to this unusual place.