Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag believes his side deserved to score against Tottenham Hotspur in the 2-0 Premier League defeat on Saturday.

Spurs and United created chances throughout a sometimes chaotic encounter before the deadlock was broken by Pape Matar Sarr’s goal, drilled high into the net from close range four minutes after the interval. In a game of numerous chances, Spurs sealed the victory in front of the ecstatic home support after 83 minutes when Ivan Perisic’s cross took a touch off, Ben Davies, before going in via Lisandro Martinez.

“It was a very good performance in the first half, except we have to score. We created good chances. We had a really good press on the ball,” Ten Hag said after the game, adding: “We had good stretches where we had many chances to score a goal and we deserved a penalty.”

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On whether United deserved a penalty after a foul on Cristian Romero,” the Dutchman said: “I don’t know why it wasn’t a penalty. It was absolutely a penalty. He (Cristian Romero) changed the direction of the ball and his blocking hand was wide, above. But okay, you have to accept it.”

He added: “We quickly had three bookings and that can’t happen. We have to stay focused. Then we switched off in that one attack, they had two big chances and they hit twice the barrier (woodwork). So that wasn’t good. And then the start of the second half was definitely not good. You have to stay on the front foot and it was totally unnecessary to concede that goal. We didn’t collapse, we fought back, but we didn’t score.”