Man United 1 Chelsea 1: David de Gea howler hands Blues top four advantage

MALIK OUZIA 

Manchester United’s top four hopes suffered a potentially fatal blow as another David De Gea howler gifted Chelsea a share of the points in their Premier League clash at Old Trafford.

The Spanish goalkeeper’s fumble allowed Marcos Alonso to equalise late in the first half after Juan Mata had given the hosts a deserved lead, and Maurizio Sarri’s men know victories against Watford and Leicester will guarantee them Champions League football next season.

Up until De Gea’s mistake, it had been a much improved showing from Solskjaer’s men, but they have now won just two of their last ten games in all competitions, and stay sixth, three points behind fourth-placed Chelsea, with an inferior goal difference and just two games to play.

United made five changes to the side that had lost in the Manchester derby in midweek, with Ander Herrera fit to return in midfield and Romelu Lukaku coming in to lead the line.

Chelsea were boosted by the availability of N’Golo Kante and Antonio Rudiger after injury scares, while Willian came in to replace Callum Hudson-Odoi, whose season was ended in the 2-2 draw with Burnley on Monday.

Solskjaer had admitted this was a must-win game for United’s hopes of qualifying for the Champions League next season, and they began like a side with a point to prove, taking the lead with a wonderfully worked goal inside a quarter of an hour.

Lukaku was the architect, scooping over the top to find Luke Shaw, and the England full back squared for Juan Mata to squeeze home his first goal against his former side since quitting Stamford Bridge for Old Trafford in January 2014.

Lukaku in particular was energised, surging away from two Chelsea men to tee-up Marcus Rashford on one powerful run, before delighting the home crowd by sending Blues skipper Cesar Azpilicueta flying into an unsuspecting cameraman with a bullish but fair shoulder-to-shoulder challenge.

Eric Bailly, making his first league start since the beginning of March, almost made it two with a cracking header from Ashley Young’s whipped corner, and when Nemanja Matic got away with a stray arm into the face of Azpilicueta it seemed that everything was going swimmingly for Solskjaer’s men.

On the stroke of half-time though, disaster struck as De Gea’s recent woeful run of form continued with another high-profile clanger, spilling Rudiger’s long range effort to allow Alonso to level from a tight angle.

The combination of that error and the interval disrupted United’s rhythm, and the second half began as a much more even affair, albeit a stop-start one, as both sides were forced into changes.

Rudiger’s return had been a welcome surprise for Chelsea, but he hobbled down the tunnel just after the hour mark, with Andreas Christensen sent on in his place. United, meanwhile, had Rashford limp off, replaced by Alexis Sanchez, before Bailly went down with what appeared to be a serious knee injury.

His replacement, Marcos Rojo, was lucky not to compound United’s misery with a red card within minutes of his introduction, after a typically rash challenge on Willian, but he also came mighty close to winning it in stoppage time as his header was cleared on the line by Pedro.