This was a day that was all about the end result, whether it be for Ange Postecoglou, the Tottenham players or the protesting Spurs fans before the match.
The day had begun with around 2,000 Tottenham supporters marching down the high road and right up to the west side of the stadium, making their feelings very clear towards the chairman Daniel Levy, the board and the current owners ENIC.
It was a striking image and those thousands of fans were seen by everyone, through the media's images and words, social media videos and the Sky Sports cameras covering the game as well as their pundits discussing the subject to the masses.
The key to this protest being so successful in terms of catching the attention when others have failed to gain traction was two-fold - organisation and inclusion.
Previous attempts over recent seasons have been well-meaning but struggled to bring people together at the right time, the right place and in the right moment. Other times there has been an angry, almost aggressive 'you're either with us or against us' social media undercurrent and that's no way to draw support from a wider audience who might not want to be associated with that.
What the organisers, Change for Tottenham, did well this time was to make it more inclusive of different viewpoints, all leading to an ultimately shared belief among the marching fans that a change was needed.
Aside from the differing details within the argument about where Levy has gone wrong, at the least their shared view was that to have one person in charge and making decisions for almost a quarter of a century as what the 63-year-old calls a "custodian of the football club" is not a healthy way to operate.
The march ended outside the very stadium that was predicted to be a game changer for Tottenham and Levy. Instead with the huge revenues now brought in - topping £500m for the first time in the most recent financial results - Spurs sit rock bottom of the player wages to revenue table in the Premier League. There's running a tight ship and then there's running a big one with a tiny engine.
What Change for Tottenham also did well was mark a clear delineation between the protest before and after the game - albeit those hardy couple of hundred fans who remained afterwards in the south stand were drowned out by stadium music - and supporting the team on the pitch during the match.
Aside from a couple of early chants about Levy, the bulk of the 61,383 crowd put their energy into roaring on the team and it helped bring the victory and prevent a toxic, angry atmosphere inside the stadium that ultimately helps nobody.
The message was in the march and that was the striking visual showpiece required. One would feel it will not be the last time it's seen either.
At one point before the game, a lone man stood before the thousands marching towards him with a small sign that read 'Levy In'. Someone ran across from the crowd, ripped it out of his hands and threw it to the floor in pieces, somewhat undoing the whole point of being able to protest that the day was about.
Either way, the main protest left its mark and it provoked discussion on a wider scale, the aim for any such event.
After the game football.london asked Postecoglou what he made of the protest and also the support inside the stadium for his team.
"Well, I mean, obviously I wasn't outside so I can't comment on that, but I thought the fans were great today in the stadium," he said. "I thought they got behind the team and it was important.
"It was an important game for us, considering the build up for the week and how we had an opportunity to just have a breather and kind of assess things and also allow us to work with the players leading into it. You know all the fans contributed to us getting the result we needed."
It was a very different Tottenham matchday to the one of recent weeks. Only Timo Werner of the five players returning to training from injury this week did not feature. Guglielmo Vicario and James Maddison both started and brought their leadership to the team while Brennan Johnson and Wilson Odobert came off the bench in the second half.
It was the first time Postecoglou has had a full strength bench to choose from in months and rather than academy youngsters sitting there mostly for the experience, he could bring on five senior subs to freshen up the team during the game without changing the quality.
"It does make a massive difference," the Australian told football.london. "Getting guys like Vic and Madders contributing straight away, you can see the quality they have and the presence they have.
"As you said I can put guys on and for guys like Brennan and Wilson, Vic, Madders to a certain extent, it might take them one or two games to get up to speed, but the fact we have them available, yeah, it's an enormous boost for us."
Postecoglou's belief is that other teams will now go through injuries aplenty as well while Tottenham have hopefully come through their period. United boss Ruben Amorim was certainly grappling with problems on Sunday, naming a bench with only one player who had played in the Premier League before in Victor Lindelof.
The difference perhaps is that when United have injury problems, everyone knows about it. When Spurs do, it's an excuse.
Postecoglou was asked if he has sympathy or at least empathy for managers like Amorim, having gone through what he has in recent months.
"If I check my office, I don’t have any sympathy cards from other managers, so that hasn’t happened," he said with a smile. "There’s definitely a few. I could see Ruben there, players out of position, kids on the bench. Well, welcome to my world. But that's for one game. Now do that for two months.
"Do that for two months. Any club. Do that for two months. I thought Man United were good today, considering all that, and we had our days when we were good, we beat Liverpool in this spell. Do that for two months."
It was a battle of two out of form slumbering sides and in the end Spurs were victors, moving up to 12th spot and leaving United in the doldrums of 15th. The 1-0 win meant the north London side became the first team to beat United three times in one season since Chelsea did so in 2012-13.
Finally having seven days between matches, two days off, no midweek fixture and half the outfield players able to be taken off during the encounter meant for a far fresher Tottenham than in recent weeks.
They were able to press for a start, which makes a huge difference to the Postecoglou system. Spurs had 55.7% of the possession with 521 passes to United's 412, took 22 shots with seven on target to United 16 and six, with another nine Tottenham efforts blocked.
The hosts also had 44 touches inside the visitors' box with 135 successful final third passes to United's 101. United's efforts mostly involved getting the ball back to Bruno Fernandes to curl in crosses from the right.
Ultimately all that separated the sides was a single goal and it came from the returning Maddison.
Rodrigo Bentancur curled in a deep cross from the right side and Son Heung-min hit a low volley across the box. It deflected to Lucas Bergvall, who did well to turn and hit a low shot that United goalkeeper Andre Onana could only push out to Maddison to fire back past him.
The midfield ran over, made a chatterbox sign with his hand, did his darts celebration and then drew a finger to his lips. It was a clear response to former United captain Roy Keane, who on a podcast in midweek had claimed that the Spurs players would have not been particularly buoyed by seeing Maddison return from injury.
"Just a little bit of outside noise, wasn't there, this week?" Maddison said after the game. "Listen, people have their opinions, but I wanted to do my talking on the pitch today, so I hope there's a certain few that enjoyed me being the match-winner today.
"No-one is more critical of myself than me. To be fair to the gaffer, he always talks about blocking out the outside noise, but sometimes it's difficult. It's constantly in your face.
"You can use it, but I think the gaffer prefers when we're just in our little bubble and listening to him. Sometimes it's difficult because it's constantly in your face these days with social media and WhatsApp, people sending stuff, and you do see it and it is there.
"Especially when it's a big profile name. Listen, it's about responding in the right way and I did that today and like I said, I was the match-winner, so I'm really delighted."
It was a bright return from Maddison, who Tottenham constantly looked to for the probing passes that could get in behind the compact United side. He also fought away when Spurs needed it, one sliding tackle in particular on the run earning almost as much of a cheer from the crowd as his goal got.
"Everybody has mentioned his celebration but I didn’t see it so I can’t comment on it but it doesn’t surprise me that Madders didn’t accept what was being said about him and threw a shot back over the bow," said Postecoglou.
"It’s just great to have him back. He is a quality player. If you just look at his goals return from midfield this year it’s still right up there. He got frustrated when he got injured and to be honest we didn’t think he would be back for a couple of weeks but he has worked awfully hard in training and done everything right to make sure he was available.
"I think that is the key thing for us and we have seen it with all our players, particularly in recent times. The injured lads are all desperate to contribute. They have seen what the other guys have gone through and are just pushing hard. Even Brennan, Wilson, Destiny, they were really keen to be involved today. There was no me holding them back. They wanted to be a part of it. Yeah pleased. I thought Madders took his goal well and contributed to us getting a victory."
The midfielder gathered a much-needed hour of action under his belt and the vocal Vicario had as much, if not more of an impact on his return.
Antonin Kinsky has had a promising start to Premier League life, thrust into a difficult situation and while at times he has shown he is only 21 and new to this level of football, the Czech has also displayed plenty of promise for the future.
Postecoglou though, and Tottenham, have missed Vicario. It often goes under the radar just how good the 28-year-old is as a shot stopper, organiser and very noisy leader at the back end of the pitch.
When Son went off late in the game, the armband was passed to the Italian. Hugo Lloris was a Spurs goalkeeper captain and he spoke more than people gave him credit for it, but it was nothing compared to the noise that comes from Vicario. He is constantly shouting, praising, telling off and roaring with delight.
One such roar came at the final whistle when he turned towards the north stand and bellowed his delight at the Tottenham supporters, pumping his fists with every vein in his neck bulging with delight.
The win and the clean sheet meant a lot to the goalkeeper and he went around having heartfelt post-whistle chats with various players. Lucas Bergvall was grabbed by the Italy international and with both hands on the 19-year-old's face, he proceeded to tell him something that seemed praiseworthy of the teenager's calm display in such a big match.
At the other end of the age spectrum, the 31-year-old Ben Davies got similar treatment. The Welshman is the longest serving player at Tottenham yet is not part of the leadership group, despite being the captain for Wales. Vicario made his feelings very clear about the experienced defender though as he grabbed him.
Vicario had made a string of important saves during the game, tormenting Alejandro Garnacho more than anyone else with a couple of flying stops. The Italian's reactions and speed in getting back up so quickly after going to ground are key elements to his game and he dealt well with United's set pieces, either organising or punching away balls into the box.
Spurs were sixth in the Premier League table when Vicario last played, also a clean sheet with the 4-0 win at Manchester City when he suffered the fractured ankle. It is testament to his character and efforts that he is back in action around a month earlier than staff initially expected.
He will be expecting Tottenham to climb back up the table and he has a couple of new faces in his defence to organise.
Kevin Danso is looking like one of the signings of the January transfer window so far. Another experienced head with a strong personality, the 26-year-old Austrian has called himself a gladiator and a warrior in the past and he lives up to those terms.
He is a battler with the pace to back it up. Just 20 minutes into his Premier League debut, the centre-back made an important last-gasp slide on Garnacho to put him off in space in the box, which earned a kiss on the top of his head from Vicario as he sat on the floor. The defender then made a great sliding challenge on Rasmus Hojlund with 20 minutes left of the game.
Danso was noticeably limping at times during the encounter but battled on until the 78th minute when Spurs had the luxury of being able to bring on a player to replace him in Archie Gray, who had been getting his own well-earned rest after starting all but one of every game in the previous two-and-a-half months.
"He got a knock on his knee," said Postecoglou of Danso. "Him, Sonny and Rodri all got sort of knocks. I don't think it is anything significant, but the beauty of it now is we can actually get them to recover instead of trying to patch them up and throw them out (on to the pitch) again midweek. I think from what I’ve heard, knocks for all three of them but they should be fine."
Also relatively new for Vicario is Djed Spence, for the 24-year-old had not started a single match for Spurs when the Italian began his injury recovery. Now the full-back has become an undroppable and has started every Premier League game he has been fit for since mid-December.
Spence terrified United every time he was in possession, epitomising everything Postecoglou wants from his players with his lack of fear and ability to drive past players, something Bergvall was also constantly doing to the bewildered Casemiro.
Spence won seven of his ground duels and made three successful dribbles, while adding in four ball recoveries, two blocks and one clearance in a performance that earned him the man of the match award.
While being a right-back playing as a left-back, Postecoglou's decision to eventually use Spence on that side has proved to be a fruitful one because the player naturally comes inside on to his stronger foot as an inverted full-back despite it not being something he is used to.
It will be interesting to see, when Spence gets the chance on the right - and he will at this rate - whether he can invert as effectively or stays out wide.
For Spence right now deserves to be playing as much as possible as if he keeps going down this route with this level of performances then he might start to be spoken about in England circles. It's a remarkable turnaround in his fortunes.
When the midweek games do return, Postecoglou will have the luxury of rotating his full-backs and Spence's first omission will likely cause uproar but he will need to be managed carefully as well after so much football following so little.
There may be a temptation to start Destiny Udogie at Ipswich next Saturday in order for Spence to be ready for the midweek challenge of Manchester City.
Another new face who was not around when Vicario last played is Mathys Tel. The 19-year-old was making his Premier League debut and he was a busy presence, constantly probing the United backline.
He does not have the physical presence of a Solanke or Richarlison yet and that means he will not hold up the ball as well at this point with his back to goal, but he does have the energy and lovely technique required.
He collapsed to the ground at the final whistle following his considerable efforts and when he stood up Maddison seemed to be consoling him, perhaps as the Frenchman rued the seven shots he had taken without scoring.
The goals will come for Tel and he forced Onana into a couple of saves on the night. It was somewhat ironic that here he was winning with his new team against the side that had been almost as keen on signing him in the winter window.
The teenager will get more and more accustomed to the role up front and when Dominic Solanke and Richarlison return so Tel will provide major competition on both flanks. So will Johnson and Tel's friend from international duty Odobert and it was important for both of them, the Frenchman especially, to get back in action.
The 20-year-old has played just 275 minutes for Tottenham across seven matches since that summer move from Burnley, before hamstring surgery became necessary. He was a teenager when he last played for Spurs and he has so much talent to bring when he finds his stride again.
"I certainly believe there is still a hell of a lot on offer for us, this back-half of the year," Postecoglou said. "Europe is the obvious one, but even in the league I think we could make inroads there. We’re not happy with where we are. It’s unacceptable that we’re in the position we are, but the circumstances have dictated that to a great extent.
"The circumstances will change. The guys who came back in today will improve and make us stronger. There’s still two or three more on the horizon who will also come back. I think that gives us an opportunity before long. It’s only one game, but I thought today was an important game if we were going to start that progress. Getting three points makes us think, OK, it’s starting to make an impact."
This was not a day that brought beauty, it was one that brought results. Tottenham and Postecoglou needed to win and they did. Thousands of fans needed to show Daniel Levy - who was in attendance at the game despite social media mischief - exactly how unhappy they are and they did exactly that.
Victory over Man United, talking about those fan protests & the Vicario and Maddison's triumphant returns. Click here to listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham!
