Tottenham Hotspur 1 Manchester United 2

Last updated : 21 December 2003 By Footymad Previewer

Rio Ferdinand put a week of misery well and truly behind him by helping Manchester United back to the top of the Premiership with a crucial win at White Hart Lane.

Ferdinand was this week handed an eight-month ban for missing a drugs test, but was back to his best once again to help United regain top spot.

Strikes from John O'Shea and Ruud van Nistelrooy brought some joy back to the United dressing room and gave them the perfect present before Christmas.

United dominated the early exchanges and got their just rewards when they opened the scoring after 15 minutes.

Darren Fletcher's corner was superbly met by O'Shea, whose blistering shot flew past Keller into the corner of the net.

Tottenham could have snatched an equaliser on 22 minutes when Gus Poyet's fierce drive from the edge of the box produced a finger-tip save from Tim Howard, diving low down to his left.

United doubled their lead on 25 minutes when Paul Scholes' pass was cleverly helped on by Ryan Giggs into the path of van Nistelrooy.

The Dutch striker raced towards the Tottenham box and made no mistake firing a deflected shot past the stranded Kasey Keller.

Giggs could have made it three for United in the 34th minute when he weaved his way through the Tottenham defence, but saw his shot beaten out by Keller.

Tottenham looked a different side in the second half and got themselves back into the game after 63 minutes.

Paul Konchesky's cross fell to Stephane Dalmat who knocked the ball back into the path of Poyet, who slid it past Howard.

Substitute Rohan Ricketts could have grabbed an equaliser for the home side two minutes from time, but fired his shot straight into the path of Howard.

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said: "It was a lot closer than I would have liked. We controlled the game in the first half and all credit to Spurs for picking up the tempo in the second half.

"I was very pleased with Rio Ferdinand's performance and the best thing for him was to play. The boy merits his position in the team and he seems to have got better since it all happened." Tottenham's acting manager David Pleat said: "We showed a lot of character and could have got something from the game, but we were not quite good enough in the end."