The chase feels forlorn, and it must be even more dispiriting for Manchester United when they play the day after their neighbours have turned in yet another stirring performance, but José Mourinho and his players can at least take some satisfaction from the fact they managed to trim the deficit at the top back to 11 points.
They made much harder work of it than they should have done, with Gareth Barry’s goal 13 minutes from time forcing United to endure a slightly anxious finale after they had appeared to be coasting at 2-0, but a third successive Premier League away win was eventually chalked off courtesy of the first-half goals that Romelu Lukaku and Jesse Lingard scored.
Whether their win keeps the title race alive is open to debate – and maybe not a very long one given the way that Manchester City are playing at the moment – but Mourinho certainly has no plans to raise a white flag at Old Trafford anytime soon. “We don’t want to go on holidays, we want to play until the last match,” the United manager said.
All that can be said for now is that United have no margin for error, which is why it was so important that they managed to weather Albion’s late storm. Jay Rodriguez had a chance to snatch an equaliser in those closing minutes, and Mourinho would no doubt have been much more animated had that header from Chris Brunt’s superb cross landed inside David de Gea’s near post.
Mourinho preferred to give credit to Albion for the way the game finished rather than raising any questions about his own players, with the United manager highlighting the home team’s set-piece threat that led to Barry turning the ball over the line after Brunt’s corner had ricocheted off Marcos Rojo. Remarkably, it was Barry’s first goal as a substitute in the Premier League since 1999.
The introduction of the 36-year-old at the interval was a key factor in a much-improved second-half performance from Albion, with Alan Pardew later admitting that he was guilty of picking the wrong team. Brunt’s arrival from the bench also made a difference and Albion will take some encouragement from the way they finished a match that delivered their first goal since Pardew took over as manager. “That was psychologically important,” Pardew said.
The harsh reality, though, is that Albion remain second from bottom – they will be propping up the table if Swansea win at Everton on Monday – and their club-record run of matches without a win in all competitions has now been stretched to 17. Next is a trip to Stoke, who are two points and two places above them, and Albion desperately need to come away with something from that fixture.
It was one of their former players who inflicted the early damage here. Lukaku, who spent the 2012-13 season on loan at Albion, towered above Kieran Gibbs – a mismatch if ever there was one – to nod Marcus Rashford’s inswinging cross beyond Ben Foster and emphatically into the top corner. It was a fine header, although Lukaku chose not to celebrate scoring for the second game running.
“I think there are two reasons for that,” Mourinho said. “He was a happy kid here and it was here that he exploded in the Premier League. And probably the second thing is, he looks at me and I don’t celebrate, too.”
Mourinho put his own subdued reaction down to “experience” and the fact that he has “changed” before promising that he would be charging down the touchline again if his team score a last‑minute winner. In truth, a much bigger concern for him at the Hawthorns was the sight of Antonio Valencia, who is such a reliable performer at right-back, pulling up with a hamstring problem. “It’s what I call a December injury – the accumulation of fatigue,” said Mourinho, who has no idea how long Valencia will spend on the sidelines.
Lukaku’s header was actually the first effort on target that either team had produced in a flat opening period, but United quickly followed up that 28th-minute goal with a second. There was an element of good fortune about it as Ahmed Hegazi, the Albion central defender, stuck out his left boot to try to block Lingard’s low shot from the edge of the area, deflecting the ball past Foster, who was left wrong-footed.
Rashford and Lingard both had chances to add to United’s lead early in the second half, although Pardew felt the home team should have been awarded a penalty prior to Barry’s goal, when Ashley Young barged James McClean out of the way so that De Gea could gather the ball. Pardew may well have had a point, yet he also accepted that Albion failed to help themselves at times. “You can’t win games unless you have ambition,” he said. “And it was only really when Gareth Barry and Brunty came on that we looked to me like we had the ambition to go and get something.”
