Manchester United Comeback Salvages 3-3 Draw at Chelsea in Premier League
Manchester United rallied from three goals behind to salvage a 3-3 draw at Chelsea, although the defending champion still lost ground on Manchester City atop soccer’s Premier League.
Two penalty kicks from Wayne Rooney and a goal from Javier Hernandez earned a point for the Red Devils at Stamford Bridge yesterday after Chelsea scored twice in the opening five minutes of the second half. An own goal by Jonny Evans had given the home team a halftime lead.
“I think that is two points dropped, we played so well at times,” United manager Alex Ferguson told Sky Sports. “It’s not easy coming back from three-nil and it was a massive effort from our players.”
United trails City by two points in the standings after its rival beat Fulham 3-0 two days ago. Third-place Tottenham, which visits Liverpool today, is six points further back and has a six-point advantage over Chelsea. Newcastle is a point further back after Papiss Cisse scored on his debut in a 2-1 win against Aston Villa yesterday.
In London, Chelsea took the lead nine minutes before the interval when the ball rebounded off Evans into United’s net. Daniel Sturridge came close to doubling Chelsea’s lead, then Petr Cech stopped efforts from Danny Welbeck and Rooney at the other end.
Less than one minute into the second half Chelsea increased its advantage with a left-foot volley from Juan Mata, set up by Fernando Torres.
Then on 50 minutes, a corner from Mata was headed into the net by David Luiz via a deflection off United’s Rio Ferdinand.
Spot Kicks
United got back into the game when Sturridge was ruled to have fouled Patrice Evra, giving United a spot kick on 58 minutes. Branislav Ivanovic tripped Welbeck 11 minutes later and Rooney converted his second penalty.
Hernandez completed the comeback with a 84th-minute header before Chelsea had two injury-time chances to snatch the win.
First, Mata tested David de Gea from a free kick, before a long-range Gary Cahill shot was tipped over by the goalkeeper.
“Most teams would lie down and accept defeat at 3-0,” Rooney told MUTV. “Even if we fought on and we got to 3-1, 3-2 and lost the game then we could have come off and say we’d given our all, but we were thankful we got the point.”
At the Sports Direct Arena, Newcastle won to move ahead of Arsenal into fifth place. Cisse, introduced as a substitute early during the first half for the home team after an injury to Leon Best, got the winning goal after 71 minutes.
“I am really pleased because it’s a big investment for the club,” Newcastle manager Alan Pardew said of Cisse, a 10 million-pound ($15.8 million) signing from Freiburg last month.
Newcastle’s other Senegal striker Demba Ba got the opener, with Robbie Keane scoring for Villa in first-half injury time.
Two days ago, Arsenal routed Blackburn 7-1, last-place Wigan drew 1-1 with Everton, Norwich beat Bolton 2-0, Wolverhampton Wanderers defeated Queens Park Rangers 2-1, while Sunderland won 1-0 at Stoke. Swansea beat West Bromwich Albion 2-1.
To contact the reporter on this story: James Cone in London at jcone@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Elser at celser@bloomberg.net
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