United 1-1 Spurs | Roberto De Zerbi’s verdict

We’d dominated the game for long periods – we had six efforts at goal before United registered, then nine to their two – but found ourselves 1-0 down as Bryan Mbeumo struck on 73 minutes.

Things then appeared to be taking a turn for the worse as Rodrigo Bentancur received a red card after an altercation with Luke Shaw, leaving us 1-0 down and down to 10 men for the last 12 minutes at Old Trafford.

However, as Roberto alludes to below, that inspired a fightback, our performance finally rewarded when Dominic Solanke held off Lisandro Martinez to glance home Sandro Tonali’s cross in the 91st minute.

Asked what he liked most about the display, Roberto told us: “I like the red card. I like the red card because normally it's a mistake, because one player of that experience can't bring a red card, take a red card - but we need it. We need it a lot.

“We have to react, especially in that moment of the game. Maybe it's the wrong reaction. I know, I'm not stupid, but we need to show to be a team, and today was the first game in this season where we showed to be a team.

“We played for the team-mates, we played as a team, we played a 90-minute game with the same intensity, mental intensity, even in the second half, especially in the beginning of the first half. We suffered, but it's normal to suffer in this stadium. The target is to play 90 minutes in this stadium like the first half.

“We are not ready yet. We have to improve. We have to improve the mentality, the spirit, the courage, the personality, maybe the physical condition, but this is the way, because after the red card, we played not better in terms of quality, but better in terms of character.”