Shawcross (1st minute) Falcao (26th minute)
Manchester United can't have too many complaints with their 1-1 draw against a determined Stoke side at the Britannia Stadium on New Years Day.
Things got off to arguably the worse possible start for Manchester United when former United centre back Ryan Shawcross scored after just one minute. A Marko Arnautovic corner fell perfectly to Peter Crouch, and the big man headed the ball down to an unmarked Shawcross who swivelled round and volleyed the ball into the top of the net.
It was another Arnautovic ball that played in former Manchester United striker Mame Biram Diouf through on goal, who really should have made it 2-0 but he curled it wide despite being one-on-one. It was a defensive mistake by Jonny Evans that allowed Diouf to beat him, who then left the Northern Irishman on the floor, opened up his body and curled the ball agonizingly for the Stoke fans just wide of the post.
Just moments later Stoke were made to pay for this miss by Diouf. A corner for Manchester United on the left hand side was whipped in by England captain Wayne Rooney and when the ball was flicked on by Michael Carrick at the near post, it landed in front of the Colombian Falcao who slotted home into an empty net for the forward's 3rd goal for United this season.
Both sides failed to build on their goals within the first half and it wasn’t until the second half where both sides had one more genuinely good chance to win it. Robin Van Persie who is in fine form in the last few weeks had a quiet game today but he had one good chance to take the lead for United. A dinked threw ball by Juan Mata was brought down excellently by the Dutchman but his attempted lob drifted wide of the far post.
It was then Crouch yet again who caused serious trouble for Manchester United. A drilled corner from the same side as United’s goal scoring corner, was flicked on by Crouch and rattled into the post. The strikers' flick on was at such pace that De Gea was not even able to move and anywhere on target it would of gone in. Instead it clattered into the post bounced back out and was nearly slotted home but was cleared at the last minute by Jones.
Stoke do feel aggrieved however that they were not awarded a penalty when a Peter Crouch header struck Chris Smalling on the arm. To make matters worse for the referee, Smalling’s arms were raised clearly above his head and it was a clear penalty - but Michael Oliver waved away the claims.
The draw means Stoke remain 11th behind Newcastle and Manchester United secured 3rd place for another week.
| Stoke (1) | Manchester United (1) | ||
 | .jpg) |  |  |
| Begovic | 7 | De Gea | 7 |
| Cameron | 6 | Young | 7 |
| Shawcross | 8 | Smalling | 7 |
| Muniesa | 7 | Jones | 6 |
| Pieters | 6 | Evans | 5 |
| Walters | 7 | Shaw | 6 |
| N'Zonzi | 6 | Mata | 6 |
| Whelan | 6 | Carrick | 6 |
| Arnautovic | 8 | Rooney | 5 |
| Crouch | 9 | Van Persie | 6 |
| Diouf | 6 | Falcao | 8 |
| Subs | |||
| Assaidi | 7 | Januzaj | 5 |
| Herrera | 7 | ||
| Rafael | 6 | ||
