Draws mean relief for Man United

Manchester United’s Federico Macheda and Nemanja Vidic struck late goals to salvage a 2-2 draw at Aston Villa in the Premier League and maintain their team’s unbeaten start to the season.

By Reuters

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Published: Sun 14 Nov 2010, 10:41 AM

Last updated: Mon 6 Apr 2015, 4:32 AM

An Ashley Young penalty after 72 minutes and a tap-in by Marc Albrighton four minutes later had put Villa on top with 14 minutes left but United rallied in the last nine minutes.

The draw leaves Alex Ferguson’s side in second place, three points behind champions Chelsea who can stretch their lead to six points if they beat Sunderland at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

Arsenal can go above United if they win at Everton.

While a draw represented a good result in the end for the red half of Manchester, a point was failure for the blue half.

Fourth-placed Manchester City’s unconvincing push for the title received a setback when they failed to score at home for the third successive match after being held to a 0-0 draw in a boring match at Eastlands by lowly Birmingham City.

They had also played out a goalless stalemate with Manchester United on Wednesday and disgruntled home fans jeered their team during and at the end of the match.

Liverpool’s climb up the table was halted in its tracks when Stoke City beat them for the first time in 26 years, deservedly winning the evening kickoff 2-0 at the Britannia Stadium.

Injury-hit Tottenham Hotspur were the highest scorers, beating Blackburn Rovers 4-2 at White Hart Lane with Gareth Bales scoring twice to help his entertaining team climb one place to sixth and end a four-match run without a win.

Cancelled out

Manchester United, who looked to be heading for their first defeat of the season in any match, stretched their unbeaten run to 26 matches in all competitions, their best sequence for 11 years, but the statistics disguised another poor performance.

United have drawn six of their seven away league matches and did not show the form of potential champions.

“We could have lost six goals in the second half, they had some great chances and we were all over the place,” Ferguson told Sky Sports.

“Great credit to Aston Villa, they never allowed us any time to settle on the ball. They hit us on the counter-attack time and time again.”

City draw

The title aspirations of big-spending Manchester City took another knock after they failed to break down Birmingham.

Coach Roberto Mancini was booed when he took striker Carlos Tevez off and replaced him with midfielder Gareth Barry as City played out a third successive home match without a goal.

Afterwards, a defiant Mancini told reporters he was not under any pressure, despite what they thought.

“What pressure? For what? You continue to say I am under pressure. Which pressure? Because some supporters say I did not put two strikers on, or journalists say I am too defensive?

“I am not under pressure. We are in fourth position. We have some problems. We must improve that. But we have only played 13 games.”

City have 22 points and are a point behind Arsenal and still three clear of Bolton Wanderers, who held on for a thrilling 3-2 win at Wolves who fought back from 3-0 down, and Tottenham.

Stoke delight

Liverpool, who have climbed out of the relegation zone with three wins and a draw from their last four league games, were very much second best at Stoke.

The home side, who beat Liverpool in April 1984, won with second-half goals by Ricardo Fuller and Kenwyne Jones in stoppage time, just before Liverpool midfielder Lucas Leiva was sent off for a second booking for fouling Matthew Etherington.

Spurs were again inspired by Welshman Bale, who grabbed a brace on his 100th league appearance, as they went 4-0 up against Blackburn with Roman Pavlyuchenko, who missed a penalty, and Peter Crouch also scoring before a late Rovers rally.


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