Manchester United and Chelsea engage in stalemate; Arsenal go top of the table

Manchester United and Chelsea engage in stalemate; Arsenal go top of the table

Manchester United came into this crunch tie against Chelsea winless in 7 games and were looking to make amends and answer a few critics. At the same time, their counterparts, Chelsea were in the bottom five looking to move above in the table under new manager Guus Hiddink, whose first game was an unconvincing 2-2 draw at home against Watford. Manchester United almost took the lead within 180 seconds of the game when Wayne Rooney passed it on to Juan Mata at the edge of the box and the Spaniard put his left foot through it with only to be denied by the crossbar. At the other end of the pitch, David De Gea was called into action as Willian’s cross was met by the head of skipper John Terry but De Gea’s reflex save denied the Blues captain a goal. The Red Devils rattled the woodwork again after Anthony Martial smoothly went past Branislav Ivanovic and took a shot which hit Thibaut Courtois’ near post. It was end-to-end for most parts of the first half but both sides failed to breach the opposition defence, as it ended goalless at half-time.

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The Blues started the second half in a better fashion as compared to the first and nearly broke the deadlock when Eden Hazard spotted the run of Pedro, who made some space and took a shot which was kept out by De Gea only to be parried away towards his countryman Cesar Azpilicueta but the left-back was denied by the flying Spaniard. Ander Herrera scuffed a massive opportunity to give Louis Van Gaal’s men the lead after Martial cleverly went past a few Chelsea defenders inside the box and crossed it with his left foot which found the former Athletic Bilbao midfielder, whose shot was excellently taken care of by Thibaut Courtois much to the dismay of the United faithful.

Chelsea missed out on what was arguably the best chance of the game, when the visitors caught United napping with a brilliant counter attack, which found Nemanja Matic one-on-one with the De Gea but the big Serbian blasted his shot into the crowd. The hosts had another chance towards the end of the game as teenager, Cameron Brothwick Jackson’s fine cross met skipper Wayne Rooney who squandered the chance by hooking it high and wide. The game scoreline remained unchanged as this result sees Chelsea escape the bottom five while Manchester United are winless in 8 games for the first time in 26 years, in 6th place. Despite the setback, Louis van Gaal insists he isn’t under pressure and has claimed that he would resign himself instead of facing the sack.

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The Gunners were looking to bounce back after an utterly humiliating defeat at St Mary’s. Arsenal welcomed Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth who are on a decent run of form having beaten Chelsea and Manchester United in the recent past. The North Londoners opened the scoring in the 27^th minute, when Mesut Ozil’s delicious ball from a corner-kick was firmly headed on by Gabriel Paulista who ran past his marker, Charlie Daniels.

Arsenal doubled their lead in the second half, when Mesut Ozil passed the ball to Olivier Giroud at the edge of the 18 yard-box and the French striker flicked the ball over the visiting defence with a slick touch back to the German, who effortlessly finished past Artur Boruc with ease to finish off a beautifully orchestrated move.

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Arsene Wenger’s men created a host of further chances but were incredibly wasteful in front of goal. Bournemouth failed to find the back of the net which means that Petr Cech picked up his 170^th Premier League clean sheet, breaking David James’ record to become the player with the most number of clean sheets in the Premier League.

Son Heung-Min scored a 90^th back-heeled winner for Tottenham, as they beat the high-flying Watford 2-1. Norwich beat rock-bottom 2-0, while Darren Fletcher’s goal against Newcastle was enough for the Baggies to win all three points. Andy Carroll scored the winner in West Ham’s 2-1 defeat of Southampton, while Crystal Palace and Swansea played out a goalless draw.

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Marko Arnautovic converted a 90^th minute penalty in Stoke City’s thrilling 4-3 win at Everton. Xherdan Shaqiri opened the scoring in the 16^th minute, before his goal was cancelled out by Romelu Lukaku. The Swiss winger scored again but Lukaku got his second goal as well in the 64^th minute to make it 2-2. Gerard Deulofeu gave the hosts the lead in the 71^st minute, before Joselu made matters level with 10 minutes to go. In the dying moments of the match, John Stones brought down Arnautovic and the Austrian finished from the spot to win all three points for the Potters.

• About the Author

About Sahil Bhinde

"I eat football, I sleep football, I breathe football! I'm not mad, I'm just passionate," said by one of the legends of the game, Thierry Henry, apt description for Sahil Bhinde. Aside from being a football admirer since a very young age, the 17 year old is pretty fond of British rock bands, Oasis, Beatles, Radiohead to name a few. All opinions are his own.