Man Utd 3 Tottenham 1

RYAN GIGGS was ice cool from the spot TWICE as joyous United went top of the Premier League.
The game was locked at 1-1 with 10 minutes left but two late goals - from Nani and then Giggs, with his second penalty - secured the points for the home side.

All the strikes came in the second half, with Ledley King equalising Giggs' opener, and the result leaves Alex Ferguson's side two points clear of Chelsea in the title race.

RYAN GIGGS was ice cool from the spot TWICE as joyous United went top of the Premier League.
The game was locked at 1-1 with 10 minutes left but two late goals - from Nani and then Giggs, with his second penalty - secured the points for the home side.

All the strikes came in the second half, with Ledley King equalising Giggs' opener, and the result leaves Alex Ferguson's side two points clear of Chelsea in the title race.

United have two games left at Sunderland and at home to Stoke. But they may have to do without Wayne Rooney for both matches after he picked up a groin strain, which ruled him out against Tottenham.

Spurs had not beaten United in 23 games at Old Trafford but started in confident mood off the back of recent wins over Arsenal and Chelsea.

However, the game was slow to get going as the sides cancelled each other out.

The first shot of any sort did not come until the half-hour mark but when it did it took a superb diving stop by the returning King to prevent Dimitar Berbatov scoring.

Gareth Bale hopelessly missed his clearance from just eight yards out and the Bulgarian spun and shot in an instant, only to be thwarted by the flailing leg of the centre-half.

This seemed to wake United up and, within seconds, Antonio Valencia broke free of Bale's shackles, with Heuerlho Gomes smothering his low drive.

Berbatov showed how drained of confidence he is by lashing a wild volley high and wide a minute later and then Nani played in Patrice Evra, who blazed over from an angle.

The Portugal winger was cautioned for upending David Bentley 10 minutes before the interval, which led to Spurs' first effort on goal - a disappointing free-kick from Bale that curled harmlessly over.

The game then returned to its original pattern, with defences on top, too many individual mistakes from attacking players and players losing their footing - ala Wembley - on a regular basis.

Spurs almost caught United cold at the start of the second period when Roman Pavlyuchenko sliced a shot wide.

Evra was physically sick on the Old Trafford turf but recovered to rejoin the action within a couple of minutes and then crossed for Berbatov to head into the path of Fletcher, but the Scotland star failed to make contact from just yards out.

Wilson Palacious weaved his way through to fire in a drive at the other end which forced Edwin van der Sar into his first save before the anonymous Jermain Defoe was replaced by Eidur Gudjohnsen.

The second half was already higher in tempo as Ferguson had clearly impressed on his side the need to win.

The breakthrough came when Berbatov made great strides into the box and backheeled for Evra who was upended by a crude tackle from Benoit Assou-Ekotto.

In the absence of Rooney, Giggs stepped up and, although Gomes got a hand to it, the ball nestled in the corner.

With Spurs not looking threatening, Bentley was hauled off as Aaron Lennon made his first appearance of the year for the last 25 minutes and the reshuffle allowed Bale to push further forward on the other flank too.

The switch worked and with 20 minutes to go Spurs got level. King jumped over sub Michael Carrick to head Bale's whipped corner and with Rafael venturing off the far post, the Spurs skipper's header found the corner.

Peter Crouch replaced Pavlyuchenko and Federico Macheda came on for Rafael. And the young Italian made an instant impact.

He played in Nani, who burst through to hit the deftest of chips over Gomes to put United back in front.

Nani ran through with five minutes left for auxillary full-back Palacious to run across his legs and saw referee Andre Marriner again pointing to the spot.

Giggs stepped up again and, although Gomes went the right way again, the spot-kick was perfectly in the corner.


Man Utd: Van der Sar, Rafael Da Silva (Macheda 79), Vidic, Jonathan Evans, Evra (O'Shea 67), Fletcher, Scholes, Giggs, Valencia (Carrick 59), Berbatov, Nani. Subs not used: Kuszczak, Hargreaves, Brown, Gibson. Booked: Nani. Goals: Giggs 58 pen, Nani 81, Giggs 86 pen.

Tottenham: Gomes, Assou-Ekotto, Dawson, King, Bale, Bentley (Lennon 66), Huddlestone, Palacios, Modric, Defoe (Gudjohnsen 55), Pavlyuchenko (Crouch 75). Subs not used: Alnwick, Kaboul, Jenas, Bassong. Goals: King 70.