Comebacks always were more watchable than cakewalks and as comebacks go Manchester United's feat in scoring five goals in the second half, having conceded three in the first, ranks with the best.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer did not score but he it was who did more than anyone to retrieve an apparently hopeless situation by carrying the attack to the opposition. His presence, the result of Nicky Butt being forced off with damaged ribs, helped restore width and shape to United's performance.
As Glenn Hoddle said after seeing his Tottenham team's lead wiped out: "God help the rest of us if they start keeping clean sheets."
In neither half was the game closely contested. Spurs started playing at three o'clock, their opponents at four and there was an inevitability about United's revival once Andy Cole had pulled one back after 45 seconds of the second half.
When the first period ended few doubted a Tottenham victory yet once Cole had stooped to glance in Gary Neville's low centre even fewer were discounting a Tottenham defeat.
Hoddle advanced the theory that Spurs might still have won had they been two rather than three ahead at half-time. The abject way United conceded that third goal in stoppage time supports Hoddle's hypothesis. Going behind to the finely flicked near- post header, from Christian Ziege's corner, which marked Dean Richards's introduction as a Spurs player was forgivable. So was the goal Les Ferdinand drove past Fabien Barthez from Gustavo Poyet's pass.
But, when Ziege's free header beat Barthez, it was hard to remember United giving a worse goal away. Nobody moved as Poyet trotted towards the corner flag to retrieve the ball, no one thought of closing the Uruguayan down as he switched it from right foot to left and as his long centre found Ziege, Gary Neville, who should have been covering the far post, was elsewhere.
That moment probably had as much to do with United's recovery as Cole's goal. The swapping of Mickael Silvestre for Denis Irwin was also crucial in giving United, without the injured Giggs and the suspended Keane, the presence on the left they had lacked.
Just before the hour Laurent Blanc rose to nod in a corner from Beckham and, with 18 minutes to go, Silvestre's centre found the equally obliging head of Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Four minutes later Paul Scholes and Solskjaer combined to send in Veron and with three left Solskjaer dragged the ball across for Beckham to drive in their fifth.
TOTTENHAM: Sullivan; Richards, King, Perry, Taricco, Ziege, Freund, Anderton (Rebrov 83), Poyet, Ferdinand, Sheringham. Subs not used: Keller, Thelwell, Davies, Etherington. Booked: Freunds, Perry, Poyet.
MANCHESTER UTD: Barthez, Gary Neville, Irwin (Silvestre 45), Johnsen, Blanc, Beckham, Butt (Solskjaer 40), Scholes, Veron, Cole, van Nistelrooy. Subs not used: Carroll, Chadwick, P Neville. Booked: Beckham, Butt, Irwin.
Referee: J Winter (Stockton-on-Tees)
