LONDON, (Reuters) – Manchester United underlined their comeback kings tag by recovering from a deficit in the first half to beat Tottenham Hotspur 3-1 yesterday and confirm their place in the top four of the Premier League.
Wins for Chelsea and Liverpool on Saturday and West Ham United earlier yesterday meant that a defeat at Tottenham could have motivated some jitters at Old Trafford.
But they reacted to chasing opener Son Heung-min to win 3-1 with goals from Fred, Edinson Cavani and Mason Greenwood. Manchester City’s ‘narrowing’ victory resulted in 11 points but more importantly United are nine points higher than fifth-placed Chelsea with seven games remaining.
United’s Cavani-scored opener was controversially rejected after Scott McTominay was fatally ruled that he had fouled Son in the build-up – accidentally holding South Korea in the face with a drag hand.
“When you get the injustice and adversity, that decision (to deny the goal) is just shocking,” said Solskjaer, whose side have now won an incredible 28 points from job losses this season. “But we got together and composed ourselves.
“We went there as a team on a mission, we looked like a mission team. After they scored, we felt the injustice and adversity and that went to the heads of our players.
“He was a good character we showed and we had to come back.”
West Ham maintained their sharp attack on the Champions League berth with a 3-2 home win over third-placed Leicester City, after taking a 3-0 lead for the third game in a row.
Jesse Lingard’s double, taking his total since arriving on loan from Manchester United to eight, and Jarrod Bowen’s goal just after half-time made it 3-0.
But just like Arsenal, who bounced back to a 3-3 draw last month, and Wolverhampton Wanderers midweek when West Ham hung on for a 3-2 victory, they scared manager David Moyes.
Kelechi Iheanacho scored twice for Leicester but West Ham hung on to move back into fourth place with 55 points from 31 games, two ahead of Chelsea and three ahead of Liverpool.
Tottenham are six points behind West Ham with their top four hopes now fading fast.
“We can’t do it so too many times, it’s not good for the ticker!” Moyes said of his side’s nervous ending.
“We need to learn our lesson, we have been 3-0 up in the last three games and have made hard work of it.”
Leicester are just a point ahead of West Ham and now look over their shoulders, having looked forward for the top four not long ago. Their case was not aided by a manager leaving the trio of Ayoze Perez, James Maddison and Hamza Choudhury out for violating COVID-19 protocols.
RELATIONSHIP BATTLE
Sheffield United’s 3-0 home defeat by Arsenal left them on the threshold of relegation. They are 18 points behind the safety zone with seven games remaining.
But Newcastle United took a huge step towards securing their survival as they came from goal down to beat Burnley 2-1 yesterday – a result that gave them six points above Fulham from third from bottom, after playing less game also.
Burnley had led through an 18-minute goal by Czech striker Matej Vydra but Frenchman Allan Saint-Maximin came off the bench to turn the game around for Newcastle.
Two minutes after coming on Saint-Maximin set up Jacob Murphy for an equalizer, then claimed Newcastle with a superb solo goal.
Newcastle still have to face Manchester City, Liverpool, Leicester and West Ham but are edging towards safety.
“It’s three points towards that enchanting figure,” said manager Steve Bruce, whose team had only won two of their last 19 league games. “It’s a lot healthier now than it was this morning.”