(AP Photo/Frank Augstein). Chelsea‘s Diego Costa gets round Manchester United’s goalkeeper David de Gea to score a goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Chelsea and Manchester United at Stamford Bridge stadium in London, Sunday, F…
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Although Hiddink’s unbeaten record since replacing the fired Jose Mourinho was preserved, Chelsea has drawn most of its league games – six of nine – to leave the defending champions in 13th place.
Chelsea remain 13th, 17 points below the top four, but while their Champions League qualification hopes have long seemed over, Costa’s goal dealt a weighty blow to embattled United manager Van Gaal.
Blues boss Guus Hiddink played down suggestions Zouma could miss the rest of the season, and the Dutchman was keen not to speculate on the seriousness of the injury. Then Cameron Borthwick-Jackson’s cross was teed up by Wayne Rooney for Jesse Lingard to volley on the turn into the net. It looked as if Chelsea’s 10-game unbeaten run in all competitions was about to be ended, but at the death a slack pass in attack from Memphis gave Chelsea the ball back and a slip from Daley Blind on the edge of the box let in Costa to slot home and he nearly won it late on with De Gea denying his Spanish global teammate.
After bursting onto the scene and scoring four goals in his first four games as a United player, Anthony Martial went missing for a while.
Hiddink introduced Eden Hazard from the bench but was forced into a second substitution within a minute after Zouma had to be carried off on a stretcher after jarring his right leg when landing awkwardly near the centre circle.
“When your aim is to be third or second or first then you need to win because the gap is already big”, Van Gaal told Sky Sports. The club’s the most important thing. “Mathematically it might be possible but we must start winning again”.
“Let’s touch wood and hopefully we will have some good news”.
Costa’s equaliser was gut-wrenching, however, for United goalscorer Lingard. “Coming to Stamford Bridge and playing the football we did for the first 30 minutes and in the second half”, said the Spain worldwide, who was warmly applauded by the fans of his former club after being substituted late on.
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Chelsea equalized through Diego Costa in stoppage time and after an end-to-end encounter, a draw was probably the fair result. Lingard and Borthwick-Jackson both shone on Sunday for the Red Devils, even if they couldn’t see out the win. But we deserved a point.
