And in the final seconds of the first half, Chelsea felt they should have been awarded a penalty when Willian sent the ball in from the right and Daley Blind blocked Terry’s shot with his arm.
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Chelsea 1 Manchester United 1, Bournemouth 0 Arsenal 2, Southampton 1 West Ham 0, Aston Villa 2 Norwich City 0, Liverpool 2 Sunderland 2, Stoke 0 Everton 3, Tottenham 1 Watford 0, Newcastle 1 West Brom 0, Swansea 1 Crystal Palace 1, Manchester City 1 Leicester City 3.
Chelsea remains in the lower reaches of the standings – 13th – closer to the relegation zone than its usual place among the top four elite.
Guus Hiddink remains unbeaten in his second spell as Chelsea boss after a 1-1 draw with Manchester United that saw Kurt Zouma injured. It looked like United would see out the three points but Costa struck late on to rescue a draw for the hosts. He was helpless to stop Costa in stoppage time, however, as Costa took advantage of a slip from Blind to round De Gea and slide the ball home for an equaliser.
If Zouma’s injury is long-term, it could also force Chelsea’s hand into offering Terry a one-year deal. You have to study the stats.
The most important current statistic at United is the gap from the top four and the dozen points separating the team from leader Leicester.
The former Valencia man was dictating the game, every attack that Manchester United had was flowing through him, and in the 47th minute Mata picked out Wayne Rooney in acres of space in the box but the England captain couldn’t manage to put his header towards goal.
– Louis Van Gaal’s side mustered seven shots on target – their joint most in a Premier League away game this season (also vs Everton).
A Michael Carrick shot extended Thibaut Courtois before Anthony Martial cut in from the left, shot viciously across goal, only for the goalkeeper to save smartly.
“I feel very good physically”, he told the official Chelsea website.
“We have to do better”.
“I think we played a superb game until the last quarter”, Van Gaal continued.
United showed as much aggression as its shown at any point this season, and it was somewhat unlucky not to get the full three points from it. In the past few weeks, the Red Devils have looked markedly better than they have all season.
Mesut Ozil scored his first goal since December’s reverse fixture against Bournemouth and within 90 seconds Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain ended a 17-month league goal drought.
“When you win and when you play good football, confidence grows”, he said. “We played like we played today but we are not making the gap smaller (on the Champions League places)”, he said.
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“It is hard. I have not calculated exactly, mathematically – it might just be possible but we have to start winning again”.
