Spurs won at home in the Premier League for the first time since November 3 against a Manchester United side who foolishly adopted their selection issues.
James Maddison scored the only goal of the game, converting in the first half after Andre Onana had saved Lucas Bergvall’s low effort, on his return to the starting line-up.
The England international had been sidelined for just three weeks as part of an ongoing injury crisis which seems to be easing at Spurs, with Guglielmo Vicario and Wilson Odobert back in the fold after far longer out.
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That coincided with Manchester United losing Amad for what is likely to be the rest of the season, with Kobbie Mainoo also joining a list of absentees which forced Ruben Amorim to name a bench of Victor Lindelof and eight teenagers yet to make their first-team debut.
The Portuguese waited until injury time to make a change, by which point it was too late for Chido Obi-Martin to change the course of the game.
Spurs started the stronger of the two sides and found the breakthrough within 13 minutes when Maddison reacted quickest to Bergvall’s saved effort from a Heung-min Son cross, but Manchester United had ample opportunity to equalise.
Alejandro Garnacho was most egregious in his wastefulness, skying one chance when played in by Bruno Fernandes, then drawing a routine stop out of Vicario at the start of the second half.
Their best chance might have fallen to Joshua Zirkzee, who found himself unmarked at a Noussair Mazraoui cross before heading wide.
Tottenham did not carve out many glaring opportunities after the goal, with the majority of their best work coming in defence through Djed Spence and Kevin Danso.
But they did not struggle too much in containing a Manchester United side they leapfrog to rise to 12th in the Premier League table as their visitors drop to 15th, two points above West Ham.
