FOOTBALL
EPL: Ronaldo magic hits Chelsea
Manchester United forced Chelsea to share the spoils with a Cristiano Ronaldo equalizer.
The visitors took a justifying lead at the hour mark through Marcos Alonso, only to see Ronaldo drawing the scores level out of nowhere minutes later.
Supporters stay home
The match kicked off in front of a sea of empty seats at Old Trafford.
The Manchester United fans in attendance expressed their discontent about the Glazers, the majority stakeholders of the club.
Many decided not to turn up at all as a token of their disapproval towards the owners.
The home side started the match in disarray, as they did on most recent occasions.
Chelsea squander chances
Coming on the back of a seven-match winning streak on the road, the visitors took control of the midfield early on and started to curve open the maligned Man United defence from the beginning.
Thomas Tuchel did little to hide his annoyance on the touchline as he witnessed Kai Havertz squander three fantastic goal-scoring opportunities.
N’Golo Kante found his German colleague twice inside the Man United box, but Havertz failed to capitalize.
Mason Mount sent a menacing cross in front of David de Gea, but it was too far away for Timo Werner to reach.
Manchester United posed no threat to the Chelsea goal at all. Undoubtedly, they were lucky to keep the scores level at interval.
After the break, the hosts came out as the same uninspired side.
Chelsea kept on pushing to break the deadlock. They finally succeeded at 60 minutes.
Recce James, who was a livewire throughout the match, put a Havertz-bound cross into the Man United box.
Havertz did well to flick it on Alonso’s path. The Spaniard beat his compatriot De Gea with a marvellous volley.
Ronaldo hits back immediately
After all that dominance, Chelsea deserved to go ahead, but their lead barely lasted. With the euphoria of the goal yet to dissipate, Kante was caught off-guard by Nemanja Matic.
The ex-Chelsea midfielder stole the ball from Kante and played on Ronaldo.
The 37-year-old made no mistake sending the ball past Edouard Mendy and into the Chelsea net.
It was Ronaldo’s 17th Premier League strike of the season. Only Mohamed Salah with 22 goals are ahead in the golden boot standings.
Ronaldo’s goal gave the home team a boost, and they started to rally forward.
But Chelsea did not back down, and they came close to scoring again. James found himself 1v1 against De Gea, but his left-footed effort struck the post and went out of play.
Chelsea stay third
The stalemate did not have any considerable impact on the league positions of these teams.
Chelsea remain comfortably third with a six-point lead over fourth-placed Arsenal.
Manchester United are five points away from the fourth spot and occupy the sixth position.
Last night’s result means they can only match their lowest Premier League tally of 64 points if they win all three of their remaining matches.