LONDON: Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez’s last-minute goal earned a 4-3 victory over Newcastle United to open up a seven-point lead at the top of the Premier League on Wednesday after champions Manchester City lost 1-0 at Sunderland.
United went behind after four minutes to a James Perch goal and trailed three times but goals from Jonny Evans, Patrice Evra and Robin van Persie hauled them level before Hernandez raced on to Michael’s Carrick’s pass to clinch a thrilling victory.
Former Manchester City winger Adam Johnson grabbed Sunderland’s winner in the second half to leave City only four points above Chelsea who won 1-0 at Norwich City thanks to a superb strike by Juan Mata.
With half the season gone, United, who have already scored 48 goals, have 46 points with City on 39 and Chelsea, who have a game in hand, on 35.
In the race for the fourth place Everton nudged ahead with a 2-1 win over struggling Wigan Athletic at Goodison Park where Everton’s Phil Neville made his 500th Premier League appearance.
West Bromwich Albion continued to impress with a 2-1 victory at Queens Park Rangers in a match delayed after West Brom’s coach was late arriving at Loftus Road.
Harry Redknapp’s QPR sunk back to the bottom of the table with a mere 10 points after Reading jumped above them on goal difference with a 0-0 draw at home to Swansea City.
Fulham drew 1-1 with visiting Southampton who remain just above the bottom three.
The Boxing Day programme is completed later with Aston Villa trying to bounce back from an 8-0 drubbing by Chelsea at home to Tottenham Hotspur and Stoke City hosting Liverpool.
Newcastle’s search for a league win at Old Trafford goes on. The last one came in 1972.
Sir Alex made five changes to the side which drew at Swansea, with Wayne Rooney the most notable absentee. Chicharito, Phil Jones, Nemanja Vidic, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs all returned to the starting line-up.
Alan Pardew, meanwhile, replaced the suspended Cheikh Tiote with Gael Bigirimana, while Sylvain Marveaux came in for Jonas Gutierrez in the only other change.
Evans scored the first equaliser in the 25th minute, but then put the opposition ahead three minutes later with an own goal after turning a cross into his own net.
Danny Simpson had his shot deflected into his own net by Evans but it was disallowed for offside, with Cisse judged to have been in an active position.
However, referee Mike Dean reversed the decision after consulting with his assistant, which United manager Alex Ferguson thought a little unfair.
“I thought it was a bad decision for the own goal. If you see it again he’s offside he’s also grabbed Jonny Evans on the arm and if that’s not interference what is interference?” Ferguson said.
“December is always a big month. We dropped two points at Swansea but me made up for it today. It was a real championship performance.
“Rooney has done a ligament at the back of his knee and he will be out for two or three weeks. We are running out of ammunition.”
Newcastle were on top at the beginning of the second period, too, but were again pegged back in the 58th minute as Evra drove home United’s first shot of the half. Krul could have done better as the defender’s shot crept past him from the edge of the area.
The visitors again took the lead, though, this time via an emphatic finish from Cisse after fine work on the left flank from Gabriel Obertan. Amazingly, United were straight back in it two minutes later; Van Persie drawing a good save from Krul before turning in the ball in at the second time of asking.
It was all United for the last quarter of the game as they desperately piled forward in search of a winner. Van Persie and Chicharito spurned numerous chances, with the Mexican coming closest with a header of the post.
In a frantic final few minutes both sides could have snatched all three points. Sammy Ameobi did brilliantly after coming on to hold the ball up and beat De Gea with a controlled low effort, but saw his shot come back of the foot of the post.
But Chicharito was not to be denied for much longer, Carrick’s excellently chipped ball finding the Mexican in the box and he slid home United’s winner in injury time.
Meanwhile, after his side’s 0-1 loss away at Sunderland, City boss Roberto Mancini was left to rue the defeat.
“It’s the same story for us at Sunderland every year, we are not going to come here next season. But last year we didn’t win here and we won the title.
“It’s important that our strikers start scoring more goals, sometimes we take one touch too many.
“We missed five or six chances in the first half, and we need to score first in games sometimes. We can’t recover all the time.”
QPR are again at the bottom of the points table after a 1-2 loss to visiting West Bromich Albion.
Chris Brunt’s low 30-yard strike opened the scoring as Albion jumped back up to fifth.
QPR keeper Robert Green palmed the ball into his own net to put Albion 2-0 up after Armand Traore’s headed clearance dropped under his own bar.
Traore, in attempting to head Brunt’s corner clear, succeeded only in sending the ball high into the air and towards his own goal-line.
Green, who claimed he was being impeded by Marc Antoine-Fortune, could only palm the ball into his own net and referee Chris Foy waved away QPR protests.
Djibril Cisse dinked the ball over Ben Foster to give QPR hope but the Albion keeper saved Clint Hill’s late header. It was a terrific effort by the England keeper, aided by his midfielder Youssouf Mulumbu on the line, as QPR piled on the pressure in the closing minutes in an attempt to rescue a point from the game. (Reuters)