Chelsea boosted their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League after the played out a 1-1 draw away at Manchester United.
Juan Mata gave the hosts, Manchester United the lead after 11 minutes but Marcos Alonso rebound effort two minutes before half time drew Chelsea level.
Manchester United began like a side with a point to prove after recording one win in their last nine games took the lead with a wonderfully worked goal inside a quarter of an hour.
Romelu 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.
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.
Solskjaer’s men 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.
Meanwhile,Victories against Watford and Leicester in their remaining two league games will guarantee the Blues Champions League football next season.
