AFP, MANCHESTER: The spotlight is on Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho to deliver a positive response to a week of negative publicity when faced on Monday with an opposite number who has adopted a very different attitude to similar off-field frustrations.

While Mourinho appears at odds with the club’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward and key players like Paul Pogba, Mauricio Pochettino has kept Tottenham on track to travel north with a 100 percent record in the Premier League.

The Argentine is likely to have little sympathy for Mourinho’s complaints about not being backed enough by Woodward in the transfer market after spending over £70 million ($90 million) in the off season on Brazilian international Fred and teenage full-back Diogo Dalot.

Tottenham became the first Premier League side since the introduction of the summer transfer window to fail to sign a single player despite Pochettino delivering a third season of Champions League football on a significantly smaller budget than his competitors. Pochettino has also had to cope with delays to the club’s new 62,000 capacity stadium that will see Spurs play at least their first four games of the season at Wembley.

Yet, unlike Mourinho’s consistent outbursts against his superiors and expensively assembled squad, Pochettino’s pleas for a united front have so far been rewarded in victories over Newcastle and Fulham. For all the progress made by Spurs in the past four years under Pochettino, success at Old Trafford has alluded them.

Tottenham have lost all four of their last visits there without even scoring a goal.

“That’s not perception. It’s reality. We lost four games, we didn’t score a goal, we didn’t win a point,” said Pochettino.

“There are many negative things but you need to believe and I believe more than ever that we can win. We’re winners.”

That positivity contrasts sharply with the dark clouds lingering over the red half of Manchester.