Tottenham 0 United 0

Spurs, already without injured captain Ledley King, suffered another blow after 10 minutes when Jonathan Woodgate was forced off after jarring his knee and was replaced by Tom Huddlestone.

But the home side’s depleted defence contained United well for the majority of the first half. On a lush playing surface the champions sprayed the ball around but failed to break down Spurs' cagey 4-5-1 formation and seriously test Gomes.

Indeed, it was Spurs who had the best chance on the half-hour mark as Aaron Lennon darted infield and his shot from 18 yards forced van der Sar into a superb save low down to his right.

Carlos Tevez looked determined to take advantage of a starting berth in place of the suspended Wayne Rooney, and one scampering run down the left saw the striker beat three men before firing narrowly over from an acute angle.

Seven minutes before the break Luka Modric escaped Ferdinand in the box but headed Didier Zokora’s cross wide when well placed.

At the other end neat interplay involving Tevez and Ronaldo opened Spurs up, but Gomes did well to cut out the latter’s cross from the left of the box.

Berbatov exploded into life in one second-half moment as he evaded his marker in the centre circle, charged down on goal, only to be denied by a last-ditch Michael Dawson tackle.

Ronaldo blasted the ball home from Park’s resultant corner but