Juan Mata climbed off the bench to lift Manchester United into sixth spot in the Premier League with a 1-0 home win over Crystal Palace on S...
Juan Mata climbed off the bench to lift Manchester United into sixth spot in the Premier League with a 1-0 home win over Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Just four minutes after coming on for Adnan Januzaj, the United midfielder curled a 67th-minute deflected shot past Julian Speroni to hand Louis van Gaal's men the victory.
The result was a welcome one for United fans and their manager, who had not won any of his previous three matches.
Queens Park Rangers and Manchester City fought out a 2-2 draw at Loftus Road in a game full of talking points.
Charlie Austin gave Rangers a first half lead with a neat finish in front of watching England manager Roy Hodgson before Sergio Aguero levelled matters on 32 minutes.
A Martin Demichelis own goal looked like it had given Rangers a crucial win in their battle to escape the drop zone before Aguero netted a second equaliser with eight minutes remaining as City dropped further behind leaders Chelsea in the Premier League title race.
Southampton beat Leicester to stay four points behind Chelsea at the top of the Premier League, while Manchester United beat Crystal Palace.
Both sides struggled in awful conditions at St Mary's with Sadio Mane closest to a first half opener when his close-range effort was ruled out for offside.
Shane Long replaced Mane in the 67th minute and curled home a fine opener eight minutes later before beating the visitors' offside trap to stroke home his second with 10 minutes to go.
Elsewhere, Burnley claimed their first top-flight win at the 11th time of trying as they edged a 1-0 win over Hull at Turf Moor.
Recalled Ashley Barnes was the hero as he headed home Kieran Trippier's 50th minute cross to finally get Sean Dyche's season up and running.
In the other 3pm kick-off, Andy Carroll came agonising close to claiming all three points for West Ham in his first appearance of the season at Upton Park.
The Hammers were largely frustrated by a resolute Aston Villa side who were looking to end a miserable run of six successive defeats.
Diafra Sakho missed two late chances before Carroll replaced Mark Noble in stoppage time and saw a strong late header brilliantly saved by Brad Guzan as Villa clung on for a goalless draw.
In the early game, Diego Costa fired his 10th goal of the season as Chelsea maintained their four-point lead at the summit with a 2-1 win over Liverpool at Anfield.
Costa polished off a Cesar Azpilicueta cross in the 67th minute as Jose Mourinho's men fought back from the shock of conceding an eighth-minute opener to Emre Can.
The Turkish midfielder's effort deflected home off Chelsea defender Gary Cahill, who redeemed himself five minutes later when he bundled an equaliser past home keeper Simon Mignolet.
Costa's effort appeared to have sealed victory but Chelsea still had to ride their luck when an apparent Cahill handball in the box went unpunished by referee Anthony Taylor
Liverpool have now lost three successive games in all competitions and trail Chelsea by a huge 15 points.
