Manchester United came from behind to beat Chelsea 2-1 at Old Trafford this afternoon, moving us back into second position ahead of Liverpool.
This came off the back of our 0-0 draw at Sevilla in the Champions League on Wednesday night; 24 hours after Chelsea had been in action at home.
Romelu Lukaku and substitute Jesse Lingard scored the goals after Willian had given Antonio Conte’s side the lead on a counter-attack after half hour.
Here are five things we learned from Manchester United 2-1 Chelsea:
Scott McTominay man-marking
Ander Herrera picked up a hamstring injury midweek that is expected to keep the Spaniard sidelined for a while. Otherwise the midfielder would have been expected to do a man-marking job on Chelsea superstar Eden Hazard as he did successfully last season.
Instead that role was given to Scott McTominay, who was making his third appearance in the space of a week. The 21-year-old did an excellent job at this as Hazard was marked out of the game after providing the assist for their opening goal. Antonio Conte replaced his star for Pedro in the final 20 minutes but to no avail.
6-point Champions League cushion
Heading into today’s game some opposition fans were talking about Manchester United falling out of the Champions League places following the good form of Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur, as well as our recent defeats against Spurs and Newcastle United.
Victory today not only moved us back into second spot but now gives us a six-point lead over Chelsea who are down in fifth, with 10 matches remaining. We start March away to Crystal Palace who are only out of the relegation zone on goal difference.
Romelu Lukaku proves doubters wrong
Romelu Lukaku had been without a goal against a current top eight side this season before finishing an excellent move to equalise for us in the first half. Not only did the Belgian striker get on the scoresheet he would provide the winning assist in the second half.
Jose has faith in Victor Lindelof
Victor Lindelof made a slow start to life in England and hasn’t been given too much Premier League action over the past couple of months. However, injuries to Phil Jones, Marcos Rojo and Daley Blind have left us short at the back. Eric Bailly made his return as a stoppage time substitute at Huddersfield Town last Saturday and even got a 10-minute run out today.
If Jose Mourinho hadn’t have had faith in the Swede then Eric Bailly could have started. Instead, Lindelof had a decent game alongside Chris Smalling after gifting Willian too much space for Chelsea’s opener.
Lingard a big time player
Jesse Lingard has really stepped up this season and the England international provided the winning goal for us today. The youth product came on just after the hour in place of Anthony Martial to head home our winner with an excellent run into the penalty area that the Chelsea defence failed to pick up.
With the score at 1-1 when he was introduced, Jose could have easily replaced Martial with Marcus Rashford or Juan Mata but proved to make the right choice in bringing on Lingard instead. The 25-year-old now has eight Premier League goals this season, including a brace in our win over Arsenal earlier this campaign.
