Manchester United poor Time continues in Premier League

Manchester United were held to yet another disappointing draw in the Premier League after they failed to beat Stoke City at the Britannia stadium.

United have been enjoying a great run of form in recent months, but this appears to be stuttering of late with the club’s third draw in the last four league matches. United could only manage a 0-0 draw against Tottenham in the previous match. Manager Louis van Gaal blamed the fixture congestion for the ineffective second-half performance against the North London outfit. The poor performance continued against Stoke after United created little opportunities throughout the 90 minutes.

Stoke took the lead very early on through former United defender Ryan Shawcross. United failed to produce clinical passing in the final third of the pitch. As a result, they were unable to take advantage of his Stoke defence that has been especially for this season. However, United did make a corner count after Radamel Falcao scored from a set piece. This match ended in a 1-1 draw, which sees United’s commanding lead in the top four race reduced to just a couple of points. Tottenham are seen as the realistic contenders at this moment and they are just three points behind United.

Focus, for the moment, will be switching to the FA Cup on Sunday."It was a draw and we don't deserve more.They were closer to the goal than us. It's difficult for us to defend long balls and we also saw that in our home match against Stoke. I think we had a lot of time and space to build up but we didn't do that.In the second half it was a little bit better but we didn't create as much. The crosses were not so good, normally they are much better,” said Van Gaal.