A historic victory for a catalytic Portuguese manager at Old Trafford. Just what Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the powerbrokers who headhunted Ruben Amorim imagined, but for one minor detail. The winner was not their glamorous newcomer but the unfashionable figure of Nuno Espirito Santo, who has steered Nottingham Forest to heights few dared to think they could touch. As for Amorim, his honeymoon period seems fleeting. The problems at Manchester United, it appears, could only be concealed for three matches.

Since then, Amorim has suffered back-to-back defeats. If losing at Arsenal had a logic, being beaten by Forest at Old Trafford was the sort of chastening setback that happened all too often in Erik ten Hag’s final 14 months in charge. Amorim’s United displayed familiar flaws and new shortcomings, contributing to their own downfall with individual errors, slow starts and set-piece failings. Much as in Ten Hag’s unravelling, United were too open, too liable to be counterattacked and left the midfield too empty. Some of this was Ten Hag-style chaos.

A game of “millimetres”, as Mikel Arteta put it. Are these the fine lines on which titles are eventually won or lost? In the 90th minute of this 1-1 drawat Fulham, Gabriel Martinelli was waiting for that key pass and looking along the Fulham defence. He was at that point onside, and then received the ball to cut in and play the cross that had been lacking from Arsenal’s attack all game. Bukayo Saka finished, but the moment was not done. In the second before the pass was played to Martinelli, Kenny Tete had stepped up. The Brazilian hadn’t been attentive to that, and the goal was eventually ruled out.

“For millimetres, we could have been sitting here with three points after a really strong and dominant performance against a really good team,” Arteta lamented, as he described it as he spoke about a “really crucial moment for us to go for it”.

Jamie Carragher made some interesting comments on Sky earlier regarding Palmer’s impact at the club.

“He gets the penalties and he is involved in the Enzo Fernandez goal as well. People fear when he has the ball,” he said.

“He hasn’t been playing for the best team. When you look at Chelsea over the years, you look at flair players you look at Gianfranco Zola and Eden Hazard. He has probably done more than Zola already in his 18 months at the club.

He is going to go down as one of the biggest players for Chelsea if he keeps doing what he is doing. He is a very special player, and that’s not just in the Premier League it is in Europe and world football as well.”

Cole Palmer was pelted with missiles by Tottenham fans as he tried to take corners during a heated London derby at the Tottenham HotspurStadium.

Chelsea and Spurs shared an entertaining first half as two quick goals for the home side were pegged back by one from the Blues’ Jadon Sancho.

But the game twice had to be stopped as stewards cleared up and contained fans when Palmer, Chelsea’s outstanding player this season, was bombarded with balls of paper which had been provided on seats for Spurs to make a mosaic before kick-off. There also appeared to be a bottle thrown among the objects aimed at the Chelsea player.

Chelsea’s next game comes against Astana in the Conference League, before they host Brentford at 7pm on Sunday, 15 December.

Spurs’ next match comes at the same date and time, as they travel to Southampton.

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca is last to speak to Sky.

“For the fans and for us, I said in the week that we were working to make the fans happy, and today they can be happy,” he said.

“To come this stadium against this team and be 2-0 down, but continue then with the same plan on and off the ball and then second half we changed things tactically. I think overall we deserved to win.”

On making changes at half time, he says: “First of all we had a problem with Romeo Lavia. That meant Malo Gusto came on and we moved Moi [Caicedo] and changed the attacking midfielder. The changes were good.”

On Cole Palmer: “I know Cole from a long time ago and I always trust him in every aspect. He is a fantastic guy. He is learning how to play games when he is marked man-to-man, [Yves] Bissouma was with him all the game.

“He is learning, improving and scoring goals. That makes him happy and makes us happy.”

“The plan or the idea is to not let the players slow down. They can not drop because they know another player is waiting to come in.”

“Arsenal, City and Liverpool probably don’t slide - like Cucurella did. To be serious, we are not ready, we are far from these teams but we focus on day-by-day and trying to improve the team.”

Spurs captain Son says that the result was “very disappointing”.

“I don’t know what to say at the moment. We did such a good game in the first half an hour. We conceded very sloppy goals. It feels like we lost because of these small details.

“On such a big stage, you need to step up and score in these moments. I feel like I let the team down and I feel very sorry for the team.

“We can’t concede goals like this. We can’t dive into this situation. I can stay here all day talking about the mistakes but I’d rather blame me with the chance and I’d rather take the blame.

“I had a bit of a different thinking when I was running to the ball. I’m also human and I miss. I feel the pain because it’s such an important moment of the game. The team tried.

“We got to stick together in such difficult moments, it’s very important and it’s why we need big support. The players are very young and they need support more than before and more than we had.

“The fans were always supporting amazingly but I think it’s time the players also need to step up. We need some big support and big cheering up.”

On Sky, Spurs manager Postecoglou says “it’s a sore one for sure, it’s painful”.

“We started the game really well and then we lose Cristian Romero and we had to reshuffle. We still had some big moments to get a third and finish it off.

“The second half was a ding-dong for long and then they scored. The two penalties weren’t great, we need a bit of discipline in the box.

“It’s a key point when you lose a key player in the first 20 minutes, He couldn’t continue so it’s not ideal.

“We didn’t play well in midweek but we did today. They’re a top side, you have got to give credit to them. We got distracted in key moments. We need to realise we are tough to stop when we do play our football. The two penalties were poor. When you’re playing these top teams, the momentum shifts quickly.

On the Caicedo tackle, he says that he hasn’t “seen the replays. I thought a couple of decisions were poor. We have to accept it and move on.”

On injuries, he adds that Van de Ven “felt a bit tight. He was only meant to play 60 or 70 minutes. Hopefully it’s not too bad because you could see the difference.

“I’m hoping Romero isn’t too bad. We’re thin on numbers and if we’re thin in January, we’ll be looking to add to the squad because they need some help.”

Palmer adds that Chelsea “knew it was going to be tough so to win is good.”

On his Panenka, he says: “When I stepped back and looked at the clock I thought it’s a bit frantic, the game is all over the place and I thought the keeper was ready to dive so I just chipped it.

 “I’m just trying to score and thankfully it went in.”

“We knew with Arsenal and City drawing that we needed to win and we did.”

Chelsea defender Levi Colwill is speaking to Sky Sports, along with Cole Palmer. He says “it means everything to beat our rivals. It was a great win”.

“We knew it was going to be tough but we trust that when we play our football it will be fine.

“We have amazing players like Cole. When he scores big goals, he calms us down and hopefully it continues in the future.

“We were 2-0 down but none of the players were panicking, we knew we would create chances.”

On being in the title race, he adds: “We have still got a lot to improve on, when we’re ready to push for a title we won’t be 2-0 down in the first 10 minutes. That’s the level we need to be at and that’s what we need to keep working on.”