Man U salvages draw in injury time
Manchester United needed an injury-time equalizer by Daley Blind to escape with a point from a 1-1 draw against West Ham in one of three stalemates in the Premier League on Sunday.
Trailing to a superbly-improvised goal by West Ham’s makeshift defender Cheikhou Kouyaté, United persevered at Upton Park and got its reward when Blind pounced on a weakly-headed clearance to volley into the corner two minutes into added time.
“In the end, we couldn’t cope with long-ball United,” said West Ham manager Sam Allardyce, whose side struggled with United’s late aerial bombardment inspired by Marouane Fellaini’s introduction as a substitute.
“It was ‘pump it forward and see what you get’ in the end.”
With Arsenal losing and both Manchester City and Liverpool drawing, United, which had Luke Shaw sent off in injury time for two yellow cards, missed a chance to gain ground on its main rivals in the fren- zied fight for Champions League qualification.
United has dropped to fourth behind Southampton and is only a point clear of resurgent Tottenham. Six points separate Southampton and seventh-place Liverpool.
West Bromwich Albion began the day by coming back from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Burnley, which could at least console itself with climbing out of the relegation zone. Then substitute Peter Crouch scored a 90th-minute header to salvage a 1-1 draw for Stoke at Newcastle.