While attention was on Manchester United's Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as possible candidate to get the sack letter after Saturday's clash of the club with Tottenham Hotspur, the pendulum swayed the other side.

Tottenham Hotspur have announced they have sacked Nuno Espirito Santo after just four months as manager following Saturday evening's 3-0 defeat by Manchester United

Nuno was only appointed as manager in June, when he signed a two-year deal with the club, but his reign proved deeply unpopular with fans dissatisfied with sub-par results and the Portuguese's brand of football.

The 3-0 defeat by United was the final straw, with Nuno and his players booed off the pitch at half-time and full-time, while there were also chants of "you don't know what you're doing" from the home fans.

The result left Spurs eighth in the Premier League with a record of five wins and five losses from their opening 10 games.

Results in Europe have also been mixed, with the north London club losing 1-0 to Vitesse in their most-recent Europa Conference League fixture.

Tottenham confirmed Nuno's departure - after a total of just 17 matches - with a statement on the club's official website.

It read: "The Club can today announce that Nuno Espírito Santo and his coaching staff Ian Cathro, Rui Barbosa and Antonio Dias have been relieved of their duties."

Fabio Paratici, the club's Director of Football, said: "I know how much Nuno and his coaching staff wanted to succeed and I regret that we have had to take this decision.

"Nuno is a true gentleman and will always be welcome here. We should like to thank him and his coaching staff and wish them well for the future."

It leaves Spurs chairman Daniel Levy and Paratici searching for their next boss as they look to get their season back on track.

Nuno arrived in the summer as something of a last resort for Levy, having decided against a number of other targets.

Now he returns to the drawing board in a bid to satisfy fans, and salvage the current season

For his part, Nuno had vowed to "stick with" his players as he suggested luck was not on Tottenham's side in their defeat by the Red Devils.

Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring in the first half before Edinson Cavani and Marcus Rashford secured all three points for the visitors.

"You can have the right message, the right idea and things don't go [to plan]," Nuno told Sky Sports after the full-time whistle.

"It's not because of the message or understanding of the message. It's the game of football. We started well, we had the ball and didn't hurt too much.

"We had a goal that was not [allowed]. We conceded in a situation that we knew could happen and lost the momentum.