Manchester United’s mediocre run of form at home continued as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Everton; their ninth at Old Trafford as the Toffees coming close to snatching all three points away from home.
Jose Mourinho made three changes to the team which failed to score against West Bromwich Albion at home on Saturday as Antonio Valencia, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Anthony Martial all dropped to the bench in favour of Daley Blind, Ander Herrera and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the latter coming back from a three-game suspension.
United started the better of the two sides as Marcus Rashford looked to get in behind the Everton defence and Herrera hit the crossbar from a narrow angle but found themselves trailing as Marcus Rojo dallied over a clearance only for Phil Jagielka to pinch a goal between David De Gea’s legs.
This shocked the Old Trafford faithful and United continued to attack after the break but were wasteful as only three of their 18 shots on the night found the target. Paul Pogba, on for Blind at half-time headed Ashley Young’s free-kick onto the crossbar as the Red Devils grew more desperate in their search of an equaliser.
Mkhitaryan and Luke Shaw were sent on as a late throw of the dice by the United manager but it was Ibrahimovic who had the ball in the net only for it to be ruled out for offside. Replays indicated that the Swede could have been marginally onside.
Shaw then struck a shot from outside the box at the end of injury time which Ashley Williams could only keep out using a hand as referee Neil Swabrick sent the Welshman off as Ibrahimovic coolly converted the resulting spot-kick for his 27th goal of the season.
With this draw, 9 of United’s 16 games at home have ended in a stalemate and they are on course for their worst home record in the Premier League era. United are now four points off the top four with 54 points in fifth, while Everton are three points and two places behind.
Leicester continued their impressive renaissance under Craig Shakespeare who bagged his sixth straight win as manager after second half goals from Jamie Vardy and Islam Slimani were enough to see off Sunderland. The Foxes rose to tenth in the table.
Watford and Burnley also took giant strides towards avoiding relegation, with victories over West Bromwich Albion and Stoke City respectively.
Brief Scores:
- Manchester United 1 (Zlatan Ibrahimovic penalty) draw with Everton 1 (Phil Jagielka)
- Leicester City 2 (Islam Slimani, Jamie Vardy) beat Sunderland 0
- Watford 2 (Mbaye Niang, Troy Deeney) beat West Bromwich Albion 0
- Burnley 1 (George Boyd) beat Stoke City 0
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