Epic Sunday? Super Sunday?

Whatever you, or your television station, was calling it this weekend Sunday was set up to be a quite phenomenal day of Premier League Football.

While the big London derby wetted out appetite, and showed the Jekyll and Hyde like personalities of Arsenal and Chelsea, the evening fixture, that saw Manchester United head to Tottenham, failed to excite us under snowy conditions at White Hart Lane.

There was a tedious inevitability to Robin van Persie’s opening goal as top Cleverly’s cross whipped towards the back post, while Tottenham’s fight back lacked intensity in a slightly drab second half. Only the presence of mind displayed by Aaron Lennon gave Clint Dempsey the opportunity to dash United hearts for the second time this season.

The equaliser, however, did highlight, once again, the on running problem that United have in their defence. David De Gea still has trouble imposing himself in his 18-yard-box.

The 22-year-old goalkeeper had a fantastic day in North London. Moments of luck, such as his save from Gareth Bale’s deflected effort, were mixed with a some quite spectacular saves – such as his effort to deny Dempsey after the interval - and the Spaniard appeared to have all the confidence in the world.

But as Benoit Assou-Ekotto’s last ditch cross headed to the United keeper, De Gea, as he’s shown before, failed to out muscle his way past Steven Caulker and collect, what many goalkeepers would call, a routine cross.  His clearing punch wasn’t terrible, but neither was it strong, and as a result Lennon was able to find the Texas native to secure a valuable point in the North London club’s fight for fourth spot.

De Gea’s problem was highlighted last season when United went to Anfield and Andy Carroll was used – in probably his most useful capacity in a Liverpool shirt – as a human shield in front of the United Keeper at set pieces. Carroll’s block allowed Daniel Agger to give Liverpool the lead and the goalkeeper’s ability to impose himself in his own penalty area has been a massive question mark hanging over De Gea ever since.

This season the former Athletico Madrid keeper appeared to have put on some muscle weight and has looked more confident between the posts.  There are, though, still moments of uncertainty in the goalkeeper and Sunday’s blast from the past, although rare, shows that the imperfections in his game can still be detrimental to United’s title hopes.

Sir Alex Ferguson knows he missed out on a world-class goalkeeper when he turned down Petr Cech early in his career, and De Gea was his way of making up for that mistake.  But the Red Devils boss may have been too eager to snap up the next ‘big thing’ in the last line of a defence. If, after 91 minutes of near faultless goalkeeping, your man between the posts doesn’t have the confidence and prowess to get to a hanging ball in a busy six-yard-box, United might have a problem that they can only fix by looking elsewhere.