Manchester United fought off a determined Norwich City side to seal three points at Carrow Road ensuring they remain in the race for the coveted UEFA Champions League qualifying slots. With this win, Louis van Gaal's men have reduced the gap between themselves and Manchester City to just one point.
A sense of gloom donned the Manchester United bench as well as on Twitter with news spreading that French starlet Anthony Martial was sidelined with a last-minute injury during warmup. He was to be replaced by Spaniard Ander Herrera.
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With the Frenchman and Marcus Rashford – rested for the fixture – missing from the lineup, the Red Devils were heading into the fixture without a single player having scored a goal in the past twelve matches. A shocking statistic but one that would be put to rest deep into the second half.
A long-ball to Wayne Rooney released the Englishman beyond the Norwich backline but even though he was swarmed with a host of Norwich defenders around him, the English captain found the time and space to thread a carefully weighted ball to an onrushing Juan Mata who tucked away the chance with ease all but reiterating United's desire to get into next season's UEFA Champions League.
While Norwich brought on Mbokani to tackle the strong defence United put up, the introduction of Timothi Fosu-Mensah and Morgan Schneiderlin ensured that even if the ball did get into Cameron Jerome's direction - or Mbokani – that there was no significant threat.
The likes of Memphis Depay and Herrera often tested John Ruddy at goal but ultimately Sebastian Bassong's misjudgement of the long ball to Rooney cost them the chance to put in a convincing performance with Sunderland and Newcastle yet to play in the evening.
Norwich have a home game in Watford before travelling to Liverpool to play Everton on the last day of the season. Manchester United, meanwhile, have three games to play with a trip to London to take on West Ham first before hosting two home games against Bournemouth and Crystal Palace.
