Christian Eriksen asserts that Manchester United allowed “control” of their Premier League match with Tottenham to slip away.
Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford both scored in the first half to give Erik ten Hag’s team a dominating lead in North London.
However, Pedro Porro and HUneg-Min Son managed to salvage a point in interim manager Ryan Mason’s first game by failing to capitalize on their advantage.
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With Eriksen admitting they did not control the game, it is not the first time this season that United have let themselves to be swamped by an opponent chasing the game.
“I think we took a bit of the gas off,” he told BT Sport. “That was our problem.
“I think it has been [like] that for a few games, where we are sharp and [have not] kept it going.
“I think we lost a bit of energy, a bit of control, and they got belief, and it went the other way.
” That’s how it goes normally. When you are 2-0 down, anything can change quickly.
“We didn’t have the control to finish them off, [and we] gave them the chance to score the first goal. That gave [them] belief.”
With two games remaining, United still trails third-place Newcastle United by two points, but it also moves six points ahead of Spurs in fifth place.
They will probably soon consolidate their top-four position with that cushion, but Eriksen warned that the mission must still be finished before it can be celebrated.
“There’s still a few games to go,” he added. “We need to keep going and get the belief back to finish it off. We need to get it over the line.”
Ten Hag, the manager, repeated the midfielder’s remarks but would not pin Bruno Fernandes’ blatant second-half error on him.
Shortly after Porro had restored parity, the Portuguese, who had taken over as captain in Harry Maguire’s absence due to injury, struck the crossbar in a one-on-one match with Fraser Forster.
“[We] don’t blame it on one player,” Ten Hag added. “We weren’t clinical enough, and I think we had to score more. The goals we conceded were too easy, and we could have avoided them.”