This a bleak mid-winter for Jose Mourinho, overshadowed by his old nemesis across town and unable to wake his Manchester United team from the slumber of mediocrity in which they find themselves, drawing games they have to win as the title race pulls away from them. If Manchester City win at Selhurst Park on Sunday then the gap from United to Pep Guardiola’s runaway leaders will be 17 points after 21 games played, a monumental lead and, all told, an embarrassment to their city rivals who once marched them win for win. This was the third consecutive Premier League draw for United, who have now given up second place to Chelsea and are playing in front of a home crowd who can barely hide their anxiety.
As for the United manager, he was spying injustice once again, and lots of it – this time the failure of Craig Pawson to award a penalty for Maya Yoshida’s handball. They are a ponderous bunch, slow to attack and sometimes wide open in defence where David De Gea made three saves including a superb second half stop from Shane Long who has not scored in 33 games including this one. A bad injury to Romelu Lukaku, around the head and neck area, who was carried off after 12 minutes following a collision with Wesley Hoedt, meant that Mourinho is losing attacking players. He said that Zlatan Ibrahimovic is out for another month with a knee injury related to his cruciate ligament and even chasing the game, Mourinho made only two substitutions.
On BT Sport, Paul Scholes’ analysis took in the bigger picture, asking whether Mourinho’s team had lost their way. “United look a tired team, they look like they have played 50 or 60 games this season already and we are half way through. I know the crowd were quiet but you have to give them something. They gave them absolutely nothing, it was dead out there. “I swear to God, they need to liven up, this team, because top four isn’t even guaranteed from this moment. You have got some good teams in there – Tottenham, Liverpool, Arsenal – and they will all be challenging.”
The big call on selection was made by Mauricio Pellegrino who left out his first-choice goalkeeper Fraser Forster in favour of Alex McCarthy, a decision presumably designed to show the England international that he could not take his place for granted. It had been a bad run for Southampton and Forster’s form has been just one of many concerns that required drastic action. United will surely face Everton on Monday without Lukaku, carried off after treatment with his neck supported and an oxygen mask on his face. He was assessed at the stadium with an ambulance on stand-by. By that point he had already missed one of his team’s best chances. Paul Pogba picked out Juan Mata on the right and he crossed into Lukaku, unmarked in front of goal, where the striker headed over.
