Tottenham tear Manchester United apart to ensure questions and criticism will come thick and fast for Jose Mourinho

Manchester United 0-3 Tottenham Hotspur: Harry Kane and the outstanding Lucas Moura sealed an important win for Spurs, to pile even more pressure onto Mourinho’s shoulders

It was a night that got so bad for Jose Mourinho that the question very quickly went from "how many?" to "how long left?" That is a story we've seen before with the Portuguese, but it did come from a ruthless result we haven't seen in some time.

Mauricio Pochettino claimed his first goals and first points as a Tottenham Hotspur manager at Old Trafford, but even the brutal way they cut Manchester United apart with a brilliant 3-0 win will pale next to all of the questions and criticisms now must come about the Portuguese and those fatal third seasons.

That may be harsh on Spurs, but that's the thing. This was mostly down to United's flaws, and about United.

With the home fans unable to face up what was actually happening on the pitch, as so many streamed out following man-of-the-match Lucas Moura’s cutting late third goal, these are now questions that are impossible for the club not to face up to. Some did stay to sing the manager's name, it must be acknowledged, and he did acknowledge them - although very plaintively.

His attitude away from the cameras will be very interesting.

Executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward will now have even more to think about; Mourinho more to growl about.

The Portuguese will rightfully look to some of his hapless players, not least that defence that he did want replaced, but he should also look to himself.

There are bigger problems here than a porous backline. That the response to the first goal was that calamitous should be a huge alarm.

Harry Kane's brilliant header opened the scoring (AFP/Getty)

United just fell in on themselves, in a manner - yes - reminiscent of Mourinho and Chelsea 2015-16. It brought his current club’s worst start since 1992-93.

They signed Eric Cantona then, solving an obvious issue. It’s difficult to know what Mourinho will do, though, especially since he himself doesn’t seem to know how to respond. There are so many issues, not least his own very responses to them.

To qualify some of the criticism of Mourinho, it was difficult not to wonder whether that out-of-nowhere opening goal might have been scored had he got the authoritative centre-half he wanted - like, say, Toby Alderweireld. Kane’s header was itself brilliant, but it’s easier to be brilliant when you have so much space to do so. Having been suddenly thrown back into the team following the mistakes of Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof, Phil Jones continued to make a series of his own, rushing out for that corner for Kane to then so emphatically and impressively pick his spot in the far corner of David De Gea’s goal.

Kieran Trippier’s delivery was similar supreme, as was Spurs’ follow-up, as they swiftly cut that United defence to shred in open play. The full-back was again a thrusting force in the move, feeding Christian Eriksen before he set up Moura to so comprehensively complete a surging counter-attack.

Lucas Moura was superb for Spurs (Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty)

There was to be no come-back for United, nor much of a response from Mourinho, beyond the predictably ostentatious.

It said much that Jones was very quickly hauled back off for Lindelof and, while his performance did warrant it, the nature of the like-for-like swap was just something else reminiscent of that 2015-16 season at Chelsea: Mourinho punishing mistakes in the most extremist way, but then forced to go back on it, because the pressure to avoid errors just makes them all the more likely.

As if to almost prove the point, the hapless Lindelof was himself immediately guilty of a howler, letting Dele Alli in for what should have been Tottenham’s third.

That wasn’t too long in coming, as Chris Smalling got in on the comedy act and contributed his own error, allowing Moura to claim his second and make it 3-0.

Lucas celebrates his second goal (Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty) (PA)

Spurs were by then purring, having realised the vulnerability in United's core and at least vigorously going for it in a way a side of this quality should.

The panicky nature of Danny Rose, Alderweireld himself and Spurs in general from earlier in the game was by then long forgotten, as Pochettino’s side remembered they were a Pochettino side rather than the Spurs that usually roll over here. But that also emphasises how this wasn’t just down to the United defenders. There are now so many problems with Mourinho’s team, but it was similarly one of those nights that provoke these debates over Lukaku’s exact level as a striker.

How different it could have been had he properly punished that worse of Rose errors in the first half, Kane’s efficiency at the other end emphasising it all the more? Just as it might have been different had Alderweireld started in the United side.

Mourinho will naturally point to such knife-edge moments as the ultimate cause of defeat but that was the repeated case in that 2015-16 campaign, and there’s a fair argument that United should be a more fortified and confident team after two years under the Portuguese.

Mourinho stayed to applaud the United fans after the whistle (Man Utd via Getty) (PA)

Instead, they just looked fragile and occasionally scared of making mistakes.

The ineffective Alexis Sanchez was introduced, reminding of how he is just another player that has receded at Old Trafford under Mourinho, before the Portuguese went for what now seems his sole solution to any attacking problem in this team: bring on the siege weapon. Marouane Fellaini came on, but still nothing came off for United,

Spurs had by then been too long in control, too long in the lead, and thereby too sure of themselves.

And this should only add to the frustration for Mourinho and United. Spurs hadn’t been that good. They had been there for the taking on the night.

Instead, United just re-emphasised how they’re going to be there for the taking every game this season - at least under these circumstances.

And that will provoke those bigger questions.

By the end, Spurs were so comfortable that you would never have thought they had lost more times at this stadium than any other Premier League club had at any other away ground since the 1992 breakaway.

They had been allowed boss the pitch, make it their own.

They were in control - something that really cannot be said of Mourinho and his management right now. So... how long will this pitch be his own?