LONDON — Manchester United claimed their first league victory at Stamford Bridge in a decade last night, closing the gap on Chelsea in the process.
Javier Hernandez came off the bench to score the winner against the Blues, who had Branislav Ivanovic and Fernando Torres sent off. It has been one heck of a week for Chicharito.
On the heels of a brace that led the Red Devils to a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over Sporting Braga in the Uefa Champions League, Chicharito came off the bench to score a controversial game-winner in a 3-2 league victory over nine-man Chelsea.
Chicharito redirected a Rafael cross at the goal mouth to restore Manchester United’s lead after the club blew a two-goal advantage on the strength of a David Luiz own goal and a Robin van Persie finish.
Chicharito entered as a 65th-minute substitute for Tom Cleverley and made his mark 10 minutes later. After a Manchester United shot hit the post, he emerged from inside the net and tried to scramble back into an onside position to get on the end of Rafael’s cross.
Replays showed he was even with goalkeeper Petr Cech at the time of the cross, but behind the rest of Chelsea’s back line. The result brings United into a tie for second place with rival Manchester City, and both are just a point behind Chelsea through nine Premier League games.
In the Merseyside derby, Leon Osman and Steven Naismith scored the goals as Everton fought back from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Liverpool yesterday.
The visitors took an early advantage through a Leighton Baines own goal, which saw Luis Suarez, who had been criticised for diving by David Moyes before the match, run half the length of the pitch to dive on the ground in front of the Everton manager. Suarez then headed Liverpool 2-0 up, but Osman pulled one back just two minutes later before former Rangers forward Naismith pulled the hosts level with his first Everton goal.
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The 219th derby produced a pulsating opening period that the second half failed to live up to and left Liverpool six points behind their old rivals, with Suarez’s antics sure to dominate the fall-out.
Both managers had called for a strong performance from referee Andre Marriner, and he showed eight yellow cards on a contentious afternoon at Goodison Park. Liverpool suffered some pre-match problems when Pepe Reina was deemed unready to return from his hamstring problem and Glen Johnson also failed to make the starting line-up due to injury.
Australian Brad Jones, who had filled in for Reina in the previous two matches, looked uncomfortable in dealing with an early Kevin Mirallas corner, but Liverpool moved ahead after 13 minutes.
Johnson’s replacement, Jose Enrique, made a fine burst down the left flank and although Baines prevented Raheem Sterling from tapping in at the far post, the England defender then turned Suarez’s shot into his own net.— Supersport
