After a Richard Dunne own goal and a strike from Salomon Kalou gave Chelsea victory at Manchester City on Saturday, Manchester United found themselves only two points clear at the top of the Premiership. It will probably take until the end of the season to see whether the Red Devils’ subsequent come from behind draw against Middlesbrough on Sunday will be a point gained or two dropped for the current Champions.
Honours even at half time
United were the faster side out of the traps as the game got underway and it took them only 10 minutes to score the first goal when Michael Carrick highlighted Boro striker Jeremie Aliadiere’s lack of defensive ability before crossing for Ronaldo to score his twenty seventh Premier League goal of the season.
While the early signs may have been ominous for the home team, instead of capitulating under the visitors’ pressure they decided to try and match them attack for attack. Although this was a risky strategy, and one that saw Rooney, Ronaldo and Carrick all enjoying space and opportunities that could have put United further ahead, it also made Middlesbrough a genuine threat to a Manchester defence missing Nemanja Vidic. The focal point of the Boro danger was forward Afonso Alves who missed a header and saw a free kick saved by Edwin Van der Sar before he latched on to the end of a Gary O’Neill pass, flicked on by Aliadiere, to place the ball beyond the United goalkeeper for the equalizer on 35 minutes.
Second half switch of roles
The second period was almost the complete reverse of the first with the home team first with the pressure and the breakthrough, before it was United’s turn to muster a comeback.
Once again Alves was thwarted with a header, but then produced a sublime finish after 56 minutes to seemingly complete the turn around of the game. There was still more moments of action to come, however, the first of which was definitive proof that it was not to be Alves’ day in the air, when he headed goalwards for his hat-trick only to see Rio Ferdinand stop his effort just as it was about to go in. The incident and the replacement of Carlos Tevez and John O’Shea with Ji-Sung Park and Owen Hargreaves seemed to cause the game to swing back in United’s favour again and, with sixteen minutes left, it was a ball from Park that Rooney swept home to make the score two all.
Despite further chances, particularly for Manchester, in the closing stages the match finished all square leaving United three points clear at the top of the table, and with a vastly superior goal difference to their closest rival, but sweating on the fitness of Rio Ferdinand who had to be taken off in the second half with a foot injury.
